Hamas urges UN to speed up transfer of Qatari money

Hamas says efforts to funnel Qatari aid into Gaza is being stalled at the UN.

Hamas on Friday called on the UN to speed up a plan to funnel Qatari aid into Gaza as part of an Egyptian-brokered truce with Israel, AFP reported.

After a severe flare-up between Israel and Hamas last month the ceasefire was reportedly hammered out amid fears of escalation, though Israel has not publicly commented on the reported agreement.

Among measures to help Gazans was a plan to resume blocked aid from Qatar through a UN cash for work programs.

Under an informal agreement struck in November, Israel allowed two installments of $15 million in Qatari money to enter Gaza.

The money was to have been distributed in six installments, but Israel postponed the third last month following the shooting of an IDF soldier by a terrorist from Gaza.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Security Cabinet subsequently approved the transfer of the third installment, but Hamas refused to accept the money “in response to the occupation policy”.

The Qatari envoy to Gaza recently announced his country will no longer fund salaries of Hamas employees in Gaza and would instead donate the remaining $60 million in aid mostly through United Nations programs.

Khalil al-Hayya, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau in Gaza, told AFP on Friday that the alternative plan had been stalled at the UN.

“The Qatari funds exist and the funds allocated by the World Bank (for the cash for work programs) exist,” he said.

“But the pace of the implementation of the United Nations mechanisms is slow,” he said, adding an appeal to UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov.

“We call on the United Nations and Mr. Mladenov to accelerate the implementation,” added al-Hayya.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

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