UNITED NATIONS/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United Nations, Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reached a stop-gap deal to allow reconstruction work to begin in the war-torn Gaza Strip with U.N. monitoring of the use of materials, U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry said on Tuesday.
The agreement, announced to the Security Council, could help curb Palestinian economic deterioration and shore up U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's standing in Gaza, which since 2007 has been controlled by Hamas Islamists shunned by the West.