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UK makes £20m aid promise to Gaza UK makes £20m aid promise to Gaza
(about 3 hours later)
The British government has pledged to give a further £20m in humanitarian aid to help crisis-torn Gaza. The British government has pledged to give a further £20m in humanitarian aid to crisis-torn Gaza.
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said he hoped the aid would help bring relief to the "terrible suffering" there. The promise came as international leaders, including Gordon Brown, met in Egypt to discuss the conflict.
Meanwhile Gordon Brown is to join world leaders in Egypt for a summit on the Middle East crisis, chaired by the Egyptian and French presidents. The prime minister said: "Too many innocent civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed during the military offensive."
The summit comes after Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza.
Mr Alexander told BBC One's Andrew Marr show that both aid and access to Gaza for humanitarian aid was needed. The move comes hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect.
Responsibility Mr Brown said: "This conflict has once again demonstrated the urgent need to forge a longer term settlement which gives security to both Israelis and Palestinians."
He said he was sending minister Mike Foster to meet the UN in the region to find out what else could be done to ensure sufficient access was available. The summit, taking place in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, is being co-chaired by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has sought to broker an end to fighting with a truce plan,along with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.
"We need to make sure more convoys can get into Gaza and we've been quite clear that we want unfettered humanitarian access to ensure the kind of supplies destroyed at the UN headquarters can be replenished," he said. Also attending are United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and seniorpoliticians from Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Jordan.
An immediate strain was put on the ceasefire following renewed fighting on Sunday - with rockets fired from Gaza and a subsequent Israeli airstrike. It is hoped that discussions will produce progress on the closure ofarms-smuggling tunnels into Gaza, as well as the reopening of border pointsunder EU monitoring.
Mr Alexander said both sides had a responsibility to keep the peace. Details are also expected to be agreed of the Royal Navy assistance offered byMr Brown on Saturday.
"From the British government's point of view, we are clear that there is first of all a heavy responsibility on Hamas who have been firing these rockets - even in the hours since the unilateral ceasefire - into Israel. But equally, there are responsibilities on Israel." The £20m of aid announced on Sunday trebles to £30m the additional supportcommitted by the Department for International Development since the start of thelatest conflict.
He declined to give a view on whether Israel's actions in Gaza constituted a war crime, saying that was a matter for the United Nations. Traumatised children
'International pressure' As well as food, medicines and shelter, it will be used to airlift injuredPalestinian children to hospitals in Jerusalem and the West Bank, to supportchildren traumatised by violence and the death of loved ones and to clearunexploded bombs and shells in Gaza, said Mr Brown.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is also believed to have agreed to take part in the summit in Sharm El-Shiekh, along with the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon and the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas. "Our first priority - a humanitarian imperative - is to get food and medicaltreatment to those who so urgently need it," he said.
Mr Brown earlier offered UK naval resources to help monitor the conflict and help ensure protection and monitoring of the crossings into Gaza. "We will focus our efforts on support to the UN agencies who are doingsuch courageous work in the most difficult environments.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, meanwhile, has welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement of the ceasefire as a "huge relief". "We will help transport those civilians in most need of treatment to hospitalsin the West Bank. We will also support children traumatised by the violence,rebuild schools and hospitals and clear unexploded bombs and shells.
Mr Miliband said the country had listened to international pressure and it was now "imperative" for Hamas to stop its rocket attacks on Israel. "Israel must allow full access to humanitarian workers and to relief supplies.We must also end Gaza's economic isolation by reopening the crossings that linkit to the outside world."
He also called for the Gaza strip to be opened up to aid workers as quickly as possible.
Mr Olmert said Israel's operation in Gaza had fully achieved its aims, claiming Hamas was badly damaged militarily and in terms of infrastructure.
Earlier, a Hamas spokesman said it would fight until its demands were met, including an Israeli withdrawal.