Mladenov
Photo: Motti Kimchi
UN envoy urges focus on 'real' Gaza issues
Speaking with Israeli public radio, Nickolay Mladenov says that Gazans need jobs and hope more than the infrastructural projects mentioned by Israel's defense minister.
UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov said Saturday that residents of the Gaza strip need jobs and hope more than a harbor and airport, a reference to recent comments by Israel's defense minister.
In an October interview with Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that another war with Palestinian militants in Gaza would lead to their complete destruction.
He suggested however that if Gaza's Hamas rulers ceased hostilities "we will be the first to invest in a port, an airport and industrial areas."
Gazans buying grapes (Archive photo: Reuters)
In remarks broadcast Saturday by Israeli public radio, Mladenov said Gaza, where thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged in a 2014 war with Israel, said residents in the enclave had more pressing concerns.
"Let's resolve the real problems that we have today. People live in desperate conditions in Gaza," he said.
"Yes, it's important to have an airport and a seaport in Gaza but I don't want us to be distracted by that from resolving the real issues that we face today."
Nikolay Mladenov (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
The unemployment rate in the coastal territory is over 40 percent, with close to two thirds of young people out of work.
"People have lost hope," Mladenov said. "Life is gone and this is what makes Gaza more dangerous and more explosive."
But Mladenov added that he did not see Gaza and Israel heading for another war—for now.
"I think there's an understanding everywhere; in the international community, in Israel and in Gaza itself, that it is in nobody's interest right now to sleepwalk into another conflict," the envoy said.
