Qatar to deliver another cash installment to Gaza Strip

Qatar to send another payment of $10 million to the Gaza Strip.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

An infusion of Qatari cash, $10 million, is expected to arrive in the Gaza Strip in the coming week, the Lebanese newspaper al-Ahbar reported.

Qatar’s envoy to Gaza, Mohamed Al Emadi, will arrive with the cash. He has overseen the distribution of a grant from Qatar to the coastal enclave adding into the hundreds of millions. Al Emadi will inspect the projects in the Gaza Strip that Qatar is funding.

Qatar has been supplying money to the Gaza Strip for several years. In Nov. 2018, Qatar sent its first cash infusion – $15 million – with Israel’s approval.

That payment caused a backlash in Israel when pictures of three large suitcases filled with cash were splashed across Israeli newspapers. Israel’s government has since asked that the money be sent in a less dramatic way so as not to arouse public disapproval. Israel has agreed to the cash transfer in order to avoid a humanitarian crisis.

In March 2020, Qatar promised $150 million in cash to be delivered in six monthly installments.

As that grant reached its conclusion, Qatar announced in Oct. 2020 it would continue the cash transfers. The new grant runs through 2021.

The money ostensibly goes to 60,000 needy families in the Gaza Strip. Each one is given $100.

However, it’s not clear how much is going to humanitarian aid. In a Feb. 2020 study published by the BESA Center, Prof. Hillel Frisch found that Hamas is getting the lion’s share of the funds and that as much as 80% of it is unaccounted for.

Terror attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israel have continued despite the cash payments.

Qatar recently said it wouldn’t join the Abraham Accords in opening diplomatic relations with Israel.  Qatar is sticking to the old Arab formula that a solution to the Palestinian problem must be found first.

Four other Muslim countries have broken with that paradigm: UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.