Abbas said on Sunday that the Palestinians "have confidence that there is an international and regional will to achieve the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip," amid a major fundraising drive for the devastated coastal enclave.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that the Palestinians "have confidence that there is an international and regional will to achieve the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip," amid a major fundraising drive for the devastated coastal enclave.

During a televised speech at a donors conference for reconstruction being held in Cairo, Abbas expressed his wish that "there was no need to have this conference," adding: "We won't accept to have this conference every two years as it is no longer 'acceptable that we witness wars' over and over again."

His comments came as top envoys gathered in Cairo Sunday for a conference aimed at raising billions of dollars to rebuild Gaza, as Washington urged the Israelis and the Palestinians to revive 'peace talks'.

For his part, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged, at the opening of the conference, the Zionist entity to reach a 'peace deal' with the Palestinians.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and 30 of his counterparts joined UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is seeking a record $1.6 billion (1.3 billion euros) in aid to rebuild Gaza.

The Palestinian government has unveiled a 76-page reconstruction plan, calling for $4 billion in funds, with the lion's share going to build housing for some 100,000 people left homeless by the conflict in July and August.

The Israeli military aggression claimed nearly 2,200 Palestinian martyrs.

Kerry will meet Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the conference, State Department officials said.

"You will hear the secretary reaffirm the commitment of the United States to helping the parties achieve a negotiated 'two-state' solution and our willingness to re-engage in the negotiations and help facilitate successful negotiations," a US official said.
"More broadly we are interested in sort of breaking the cycle we have been in the last six years of war and reconstruction there."

Ahead of the Cairo meeting, the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA described Gaza's financial needs as "unprecedented."

'Considerable donor fatigue'

Some estimates suggest that up to $8 billion will be needed to repair damaged infrastructure and homes, and ensure health care, education and clean drinking water in one of the world's mostly densely populated territories.

This year's conflict displaced more than a quarter of Gaza's population of 1.7 million.

Securing pledges of enough funding is unlikely to be easy. One Western diplomat in Jerusalem warned that there was "considerable donor fatigue."

"We have seen infrastructure projects that we have contributed to which have been destroyed," the diplomat said, adding that skepticism existed even before the latest conflict.

Washington has already committed some $118 million, but has not made any pledges of new funds beyond that. European and Gulf nations, however, are expected to make significant pledges.