GAZA CITY: United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon made a brief visit on Tuesday to war-ravaged Gaza, two days after donor states pledged $5.4 billion in aid to rebuild it after a devastating Israeli offensive.

He was driven through the ruins of Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighbourhood and the nearby Jabaliya refugee camp, the scenes of some of the heaviest Israeli shelling in this summer’s conflict.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced by the destruction, and on Tuesday people camping outside their ravaged homes were seen waving at the convoy of white UN vehicles as it passed.

After meeting members of the newly convened Palestinian consensus government, Ban told reporters that the devastation he had seen was far worse than that caused in the previous Israel-Gaza conflict of winter 2008-2009.

“The destruction which I have seen while coming to here is beyond description. This is a much more serious destruction than what I saw in 2009.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to people who lost their lives and also to families who lost their loved ones, “Ban said.

Ban, who last visited the territory in 2012, said at a donor conference in Egypt on Sunday that his trip to the Palestinian enclave was “to listen directly to the people of Gaza”.

He said that international pledges of $5.4bn in reconstruction aid were “quite encouraging”.

Donations include $1bn from Qatar, $212m from the US and 450m euros from the EU.

The provision of aid will be overseen jointly by the UN and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, amid concerns that unchecked imports could fall into the hands of militants, including those of Hamas, the de facto power in Gaza against which Israel waged its military operation.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2014