Qatar-funded fuel entered the Gaza Strip last week to power the city’s only electricity station for the first time since the May ceasefire.
Qatar has allegedly refused to resume the transfer of funds to Gaza using the new Israeli mechanism without protection from the United States, Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday, citing Israeli media.
According to the report, the Gulf state has instead requested the arrangement of a new mechanism in a four-way meeting with the US, Israel, and the UN.
Authorities in Doha have yet to publicly comment on the matter.
In May, weeks after the deadly 11-day bombardment of Gaza, Israel demanded that Qatar directly deposits all donations to the Palestinian Authority [PA] or international organisations.
Qatar-funded fuel enters Gaza for first time since brutal Israeli offensive
Reports later said the UN stepped in to facilitate the delivery and transfer of the Qatari aid to Gaza according to a newly changed transfer mechanism, adding that the PA would no longer be involved in the transfer of the cash to the besieged enclave.
Israel’s apparent moves to place hurdles in the way of aid delivery to the besieged Strip appears to reflect its concern that the funds would go to ruling party Hamas instead, a claim that several officials from the Gulf state and Palestinian group refuted.
“We cannot reduce the Palestinian people living under occupation and consolidate them in just one group. There are 2.1 million people living in Gaza who are in desperate humanitarian need, there are people who are suffering and suffered from this war, there have been a lot of children killed in the war,” Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told MSNBC in May.
The latest Israeli report noted Tel Aviv is now attempting to create a list of European countries that would donate to the Palestinian city instead of Qatar to avoid “any connections to Hamas”.
Qatar-funded fuel finally entered the Gaza Strip on 28 June to power the city’s only electricity station for the first time since the May ceasefire, following a deadly Israeli offensive on the city that lasted for 11 days.
Israel has since violated the ceasefire by launching several rounds of airstrikes on the enclave.
In recent years, Qatar has donated millions to Gaza and recently provided the Strip with $500 million to reconstruct after the brutal offensive.
So far, 50% of Qatari aid has contributed to providing Palestinians with electricity to help increase Gaza’s power supply from two to 16 hours per day. The other half of the donations goes towards 430,000 of the poorest families living in the city, each of which receives $100, the FM said.
Qatar has built 42,000 housing units, hospitals and roads, including the Hamad Hospital for rehabilitation that successfully completed 70,000 medical services in 2020 alone, only to be destroyed in Israel’s bombardment in Gaza.
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