UN envoy says Israel uses disproportionate force in Gaza

    GAZA/RAMALLAH, July 25 (Xinhua) -- UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland said on Tuesday that Israel used "disproportionate" force in its offensive in the Gaza Strip.

    "This is very clear, a disproportionate use (of force)," Egeland told reporters while touring the Gaza power plant, which was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes last month.

    "Civilian infrastructure is protected. The law is very clear," he said. 

    "This plant is more important for hospitals, for sewage, for water, for civilians than for any Hamas or Islamic Jihad man with some kind of a missile on his shoulder. He doesn't need electricity as much as a mother trying to care for a child," Egeland stressed.

    The power plant, south of Gaza City, provided electricity to two-thirds of the about 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

    It will take at least 10 months to reconstruct the plant. After touring the Gaza Strip, Egeland traveled to the West Bankcity of Ramallah and held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    "The world is not interested to see the suffering of the Palestinian people continuing as Israel keeps destroying houses, bridges and power stations in the Gaza Strip," said the senior UN official at a news conference in Ramallah following the talks with Abbas.

    "There is a real humanitarian catastrophe in the Palestinian territories, especially in Gaza which lacks water and electricity," he added.

    "We try to deliver food for Gaza residents and we need help to minimize that disastrous condition," he said. "This situation can't last any longer, especially in Gaza where there is no import or export."

    In addition, Egeland said that the UN needed 250 million U.S. dollars in order to meet the humanitarian needs in the Palestinian territories.

    He called on the international community to immediately offer help.

    Meanwhile, Saeb Erekat, senior Palestinian official and Abbas' close ally, told reporters that the Palestinian president urged Egeland during their meeting to make an emergency plea to the world to secure basic necessities for the Palestinian people.

    Relief agencies have warned of a looming humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip, where Israel kept up a massive air and ground offensive in a bid to rescue a soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and halt Palestinian rocket fire.

    Israeli air raids have destroyed key roads, bridges and main water and electricity supply lines in Gaza.

    Israel has also shut down Gaza crossings since late last month and the desert coastal strip is running out of food, medicine and fuel. Enditem