The Palestinian unity government held its first ever meeting in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip yesterday as its rival factions presented a common front ahead of a major donors' conference.

The gathering came more than three months after the government was sworn in following a landmark reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas.

Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah crossed into Gaza yesterday where he visited some of the areas of the Strip worst-hit by a 50-day Israeli military operation against Palestinian militants.

He later gathered with his ministers at the Gaza property of president Mahmud Abbas, an AFP correspondent said.

"What we have seen today is dreadful and painful, and it has become clear to us that the rebuilding (of Gaza) is at the top of our list of priorities," he said.

The conflict, which ended on August 26, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

It left 100,000 Gazans homeless.

Earlier Hamdallah told reporters that

rebuilding Gaza would require a functioning unity government.

"We are facing a humanitarian and moral duty to our people in Gaza," he said after entering Gaza via the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing.

"We have put the years of division behind us, and the most important priority of the government is to guarantee a return to normal life for Gazans andunitywiththeWest Bank."

The cabinet's composition was agreed in June between bitter rivals Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), and Hamas, which remains in de facto control of Gaza.

But yesterday's meeting was its first in the besieged coastal territory, and the first that its Gaza-based ministers could attend, after Israel blocked their travel to the West Bank to be sworn in.

Egypt will host a donors' conference on financing the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip on October 12.

The Palestinians have called for more than $4 billion in aid to rebuild Gaza's infrastructure and provide humanitarian relief to the blockaded coastal territory, which is one of the most densely populated areas of the world.