The Palestinian Authority said on Oct 15 that it is prepared to operate the Rafah crossing for aid between Egypt and Gaza, while raising concern about the reconstruction of the devastated enclave following two years of the Hamas-Israel war.
00:00Members, thank you to this ambassador for all the president of Palestine, your former prime minister, you're a member of the Palestine, the Palestinians.
00:11Refah is a Palestinian-Egyptian matter.
00:34Obviously, Israel has occupied Refah.
00:36We had an agreement in 2005, it's called Axis and Movement Agreement, and it does involve the European Eurocops, European police.
00:51We were, the Palestinian Authority police were there, and the Egyptians, so there were three parties, Egypt, Palestine, and the Eurocops.
01:00Now, we are ready to engage again, and we have notified all parties that we are ready to operate the Refah crossing.
01:10We actually renew the agreement with Eurocops every six months, and in the last six months, the agreement has been renewed, and it is effective, and it is still valid until today.
01:25So, therefore, we don't need a new agreement. The agreement is there, and I think now it's in the final shape of putting all the bits and pieces together for it to function.
01:39To be frank with you, I am a bit worried about the issue of reconstruction.
01:44We need to compete with the reconstruction of Syria, of Lebanon, of Yemen, of Sudan, with many countries.
01:54International aid is limited, and it is our hope that international donors will be generous to allow shelter and provide shelter for our people,
02:06because the whole idea, and my worry is that Israel might use this sabotage of reconstruction as a mechanism for force transfer our people.
02:21School construction can wait. We can teach in tents, but we need water, we need electricity, and we need food in order for us to enable our people to stay there.
02:33That is the most important part. There is lack of equipment. There is lack of possibilities and means, and we need, really, international aid to flow immediately.
02:44As I said, the estimates by the United Nations is $70 billion of cost of construction.
02:52The World Bank has estimated the cost of reconstruction. For the first year, it was $53 billion. And now, of course, after two years, I assume that the numbers have doubled in a way.
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