Palestinian Authority to receive $300 million for health and education initiatives, remainder to finance humanitarian and UN programs
Qatar pledged to send $480 million in aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Qatar’s foreign ministry said overnight Monday.
The Palestinian Authority would receive $300 million for health and education and $180 million would finance humanitarian initiatives, electricity and United Nations programs, Reuters reported.
The announcement comes after two days of intense fighting between Israel and Gaza-based terrorists that saw nearly 700 rockets fired at Israel and four Israeli civilians killed.
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In response to the onslaught, the Israel Defense Forces conducted over 300 strikes from the air and land, including a rare assassination of a terrorist operative whom the IDF said funneled money from Iran to terror groups in the Strip.
The fighting was some of the heaviest seen since 2014’s 50-day war with Gaza, but tapered off late Sunday and early Monday, as Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad said a ceasefire had been reached.
Six months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to allow the monthly transfer of $15 million in cash from Qatar to cash-strapped Hamas, a decision which apparently led to the most recent flareup in violence.
This week’s exchange of fire followed several weeks of relative calm between Israel and Gaza amid an unofficial armistice, which appeared to be breaking down as terrorists in the Strip stepped up their violent activities along the border in the days preceding the outbreak of fighting. Gaza terror groups said their actions were retaliation for Israel not abiding by the ceasefire agreement by halting the transfer of Qatari money into Gaza — a charge Jerusalem denied, blaming the delay on Qatar and the United Nations.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much of the $480 million announced on Monday would go to Gaza, or how the transfer would be carried out.
Gaza suffers from abject poverty and unemployment in the coastal enclave stands at 51 percent. Hamas, a Jihadist terrorist group which aims to destroy Israel, pours its funding into military infrastructure rather than improving the overall situation in Gaza.
The Israeli military on Monday warned that war with Gaza could be back on the horizon in days or weeks if Israel did not work to ease living conditions in the beleaguered enclave.
In a press briefing, the military said the country needed to make changes to its strategic policy to improve living conditions in the Gaza Strip if it did not want another flareup of violence in coming weeks.
Qatar’s announcement comes on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
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