World Bank urges cooling of Israel-Gaza conflict as annual meetings start
By Andrea Shalal and David Lawder
MARRAKECH, Morocco (Reuters) -The World Bank on Monday urged a «rapid de-escalation» of the fighting in Israel and Gaza as the violence cast a pall over the start of the bank's annual meetings with the International Monetary Fund in Morocco.
An internal World Bank memo seen by Reuters cited a «devastating loss of life, destruction and heavy toll on civilians being incurred on both sides,» but voiced support for the lender's work in Gaza and the West Bank.
«We hope for a rapid de-escalation of the conflict and end to the violence. The World Bank and our development partners have long worked to support the poorest, most vulnerable people in the West Bank and Gaza, and we remain committed to building the foundations for a more stable and sustainable future.»
The Oct. 9-15 annual meetings in Marrakech are expected to focus heavily on increasing resources for the IMF and the World Bank, both potentially contentious moves. But the attention of many government officials and non-profit representatives on the first day turned to the possibility of a wider conflict.
«We're all just very much taken aback by the magnitude of the casualties on both sides,» Anna Bjerde, the World Bank's managing director of operations told Reuters in an interview.
The conflict already has spiked oil prices and prompted a rush into safe-haven assets such as gold, which could hurt developing economies.
World Bank Chief Economist Indermit Gill told Reuters that he worried the violence could overshadow important discussions at the IMF-World Bank meetings about sovereign debt, mediocre growth prospects and the big setback for development caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
«It's always the low-income countries that you take
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