UN humanitarian chief to attend Palestinian aid conference

The conference on humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, scheduled Friday in Stockholm, is jointly sponsored by Sweden, Spain and Norway and is focusing especially on Gaza.

"Gaza is a ticking time bomb," Egeland told reporters as he turned the spotlight on the plight of the Palestinians following the Israeli offensive in Gaza in late June.

"You cannot seal off an area which is a litlle bigger than the city of Stockholm (and has) 1.4 million people, of whom 800,0000 are youths and children and then have hundreds of artillery shells (fired) in there every day, seal off the borders, crippling the economy," he said, warning of a "social explosion".

"Nobody visiting Gaza can avoid the fact this is a totally untenable situation," said the Norwegian UN official who recently toured Gaza, which faces an acute shortage of water, electricity and health care.

In addition, Egeland pointed out that the United Nations had received only 40 percent of the 385 million dollars he had appealed for to assist the Palestinian territories.

"I am hopeful that we will not only get more money and but full diplomatic support (in Stockholm) for a fresh look at the situation (to allow) the flow of humanitarian aid and a Lebanese-style ceasefire for Gaza," the UN humanitarian chief said.

The Palestinians aid conference follows a day after a major donors conference on Lebanon's reconstruction, also to be held in the Swedish capital, in the wake of the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Wednesday, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appealed to Israel to stop its Gaza offensive and closure, and for Palestinian militants to stop firing rockets into the Jewish state, after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank.

"Two hundred Palestinians have been killed since the end of June," Annan told a news conference with Abbas in Ramallah, referring to when Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after militants captured a soldier.

Israel launched the massive operation in a bid to stop what were almost continuous rocket attacks from Gaza and to recover a corporal seized by militants in a cross-border raid on June 25 that left two soldiers dead.

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