By NNN-KUNA,
London : Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he is appalled by the destruction caused by the recent fighting in Gaza.
He was visiting the territory for the first time since he became a Middle East envoy two years ago.
On a separate visit, British International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said Britain would give 30 million pounds towards rebuilding damaged homes in Gaza.
Both he and Blair are due to attend a donors’ conference in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday which will discuss reconstruction.
Alexander told the BBC the aid money — 10 million pounds which had been pledged in January — was to be spent on rebuilding schools, hospitals and homes damaged in the three-week Israeli offensive against Gaza.
Around 1,300 Palestinians, of whom 412 were children, were killed during the attacks and 21,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged.
In a separate BBC interview, Blair said everyone he had met in the territory wanted to live in peace with Israel and the international community must do everything it could to establish a Palestinian state.
He said: “It is a huge challenge, but what’s the alternative? The alternative to a two-state solution is a one-state solution and then there’s going to be a big fight.
“The whole of the world has got an interest in making sure that does not happen and that we have a two-state solution, because it’s perfectly possible to have one.”
Speaking at a UN-run school in the northern town of Izbet Beit Hanoun, near the border with Israel, Blair said: “I wanted to come to hear for myself first-hand from people in Gaza, whose lives have been so badly impacted by the recent conflict.
“These are the people who need to be the focus of all our efforts for peace and progress from now on.”
He promised to relay their appeals for assistance to the conference on Gaza in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El Sheikh.
Blair, who is the Middle East representative of the European Union, Russia, the UN and the US, is not scheduled to meet members of the governing party Hamas, although the visit has been coordinated with them.
He stopped short of saying that any future strategy for peace would involve negotiations with Hamas, but said “the way is open for Hamas if they want to take it.”
The British Department for International Development said Britain’s contribution would also help restore water, sewage and electricity supplies to Gaza’s population — 90 per cent of whom require food aid.
But Alexander said there was also “a desperate need” for Israel to relax its restrictions on the delivery of supplies to the territory. “The continuing suffering in the area is very clear and we must provide more than just basic humanitarian support if we are to help rebuild people’s lives,” he said.
“Gaza needs money, fuel and construction materials and whilst these goods are turned away at the borders, repairs to homes, water systems and the electricity network will remain impossible.
“Israel must do the right thing and allow much-needed goods to get through to those men, women and children who continue to suffer.”