Arab foreign ministers to visit Gaza ‘soon’

CAIRO — A delegation of Arab foreign ministers, including those of Egypt and Jordan, will visit Gaza “soon” in a show of support for Palestinians, Arab League Secretary General Nabil El Araby said Wednesday.

The ministers will also assess reconstruction needs in the battered enclave after a nearly month-long Israeli war on Gaza, Araby said.

“An Arab ministerial delegation will go to Gaza soon in solidarity,” he told reporters.

The delegation, which is expected to expand, so far includes the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait and Morocco, as well as Araby himself.

A 72-hour ceasefire took hold on Tuesday in the conflict, which is expected to cost the territory up to $6 billion in damage, said the Palestinian deputy economy minister, Taysir Amro, in Ramallah.

A more precise assessment would be carried out once calm returns permanently to the overpopulated sliver of territory where more than 1,850 people were killed and nearly half a million displaced, he said.