Qatar plans to resume Gaza funding

GBNEWS24DESK//

Qatar will soon resume funding for civil servants and poor families in the Gaza Strip under a new mechanism involving the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and the United Nations, the Gulf state’s aid envoy said on Monday.

Doha has underwritten Gaza rebuilding and infrastructure projects since the 2014 war between the Palestinian enclave’s Islamist Hamas rulers and Israel, but another round of fighting in May prompted Israeli and US demands to revise the payouts.

Envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi said after meeting Hamas leaders in Gaza that Qatari stipends for civil servants and poor families, suspended since May, would resume in coming days.

Gas-rich Qatar used to spend $30 million per month to help operate the enclave’s lone power plant and to support needy families and Hamas-hired public servants.

Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group in the West, has endorsed a new payment mechanism involving the rival Palestinian Authority (PA) of President Mahmoud Abbas as well as the United Nations, Al-Emadi said in a statement.