UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov leaves after a press conference in Gaza city yesterday.

AFP/Gaza City

The UN’s new Middle East peace envoy yesterday urged Palestinian factions to unite and Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, on his first visit to the territory.
“I strongly believe that it will hurt the cause of the Palestinian people if division, if the lack of unity, is not addressed as soon as possible,” Nickolay Mladenov, who was appointed in February, told reporters in Gaza City.
“I hope that the UN will be able to support the efforts to strengthen this unity,” he said.
Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis months after a devastating 50-day war between Israel and Hamas, with the international community warning of further conflict without Palestinian reconciliation and a lifting of Israel’s blockade.
“We in the UN, along with our partners in the international community, have a responsibility to ensure that Gaza is not just being reconstructed... but that the blockade which stops access to construction materials, to movement of people, goods... is lifted,” Mladenov said.
The July-August Gaza war, which killed 2,200 Palestinians and 73 on the Israeli side, has left 100,000 people homeless in the tiny coastal territory, home to 1.8mn people.
Reconstruction of homes has barely begun, with an eight-year Israeli blockade still in place.  Gaza’s Islamist de facto rulers Hamas and their West Bank-based rivals Fatah have failed to implement a unity deal they signed in April last year.
The deal was meant to hand over control of Gaza to the Western-supported Palestinian Authority, which Fatah dominates.
With Hamas continuing to control Gaza, Israel has left in place its blockade, which has largely banned the import of building materials, fearing they could be used by militants to make weapons and attack tunnels.
Seized fishing boats returned
Israel has returned 15 fishing boats it seized in recent years off the Gaza Strip, the army said, months after it fought a devastating conflict in the blockaded coastal territory.
Palestinian fishermen said it was the first time Israel had given vessels back, and demanded the return of dozens more.
“The naval branch (navy) returned to Gaza 15 fishing boats which deviated from the Strip’s permitted fishing zone and were seized over the years,” an Israel Defence Forces statement said on Wednesday night.
The tiny vessels were dragged back to shore by a boat from the Gaza fishermen’s union, an AFP photographer said.
Israel, which has imposed an eight-year blockade on Gaza, bans fishing beyond six nautical miles (11km) off the coast, and regularly fires at boats that exceed that limit.
Fishermen say they are often fired upon before they reach the edge of the permitted zone.
Fishing union chief Nizar Ayyash told AFP the return of 15 boats was welcome but demanded that Israel hand back dozens more vessels still in its possession.
“It is true this is the first time Israel has returned fishing boats... but its forces fire at fishermen before they’ve even exceeded the imposed limit, especially off southern Gaza,” he said.
“There are still 60 boats held by the Israeli navy, and we demand Israel return them,” he added.
Around 4,000 fishermen work in Gaza, more than half of whom live below the poverty line.