Palestinian president declares Gaza disaster area

Relatives of a Palestinian, whom medics said was killed by Israeli shelling near a market in Shejaia, mourn at a hospital in Gaza City on July 30, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

RAMALLAH -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday declared the embattled Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip as a disaster area, the state-run Wafa news agency reported.

Abbas urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to assume responsibility and take necessary measures to declare Gaza as a disaster area.

He also urged the UN agencies and international aid organizations to provide the people in Gaza with emergency assistances due to the difficult conditions they have been going through as a result of the Israeli ongoing offensive.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian president urged Ban to provide medicines, water, food and safe shelters to the displaced people in Gaza.

The Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip, which was launched on July 8 to end Palestinian rocket firing into Israel, has claimed the lives of 1,253 Palestinians and 56 Israelis, including 53 soldiers.

Regional and international efforts to end the ongoing fighting between Israel and Palestinian factions in Gaza have been going on unabated.

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