Qatar’s foreign ministry announced it will transfer half a billion dollars to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.
Qatar will send $480 million in support of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, the country’s foreign ministry announced in a statement on Monday.
According to Qatar, $300 million will go to the Palestinians in the forms of grants and loans for health and education. The remaining $180 million will be put toward urgent humanitarian needs, supporting U.N. efforts and providing electricity to areas that need it.
The money comes after a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas. The terror group, together with the smaller Iran-sponsored Islamic Jihad, fired an estimated 600-700 rockets into Israel, killing four and wounding 145. It is reportedly the worst round of fighting between the two since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
According to reports, the transfer of Qatari money was part of the agreement reached between Israel and Hamas, which included other conditions, such as expanding Gaza’s fishing area and the opening of the border crossings.
However, Israel denies that any conditions were agreed upon.
One Israeli official told Ynet news, “No conditions were set between the sides and there’s no promise that hostilities won’t be renewed in a short time. We hope that the great damage to the organization [Hamas] in the last two days will bring them to understand that it’s not worthwhile to open a campaign against us. But there’s no understanding, just a slide into a ceasefire. Money from Qatar will continue to pass.”
Qatar has transferred over $1.1 billion between 2012 and 2018 to the terror group Hamas. It supplied $200 million in aid just in 2018.
Qatar also gave $50 million to UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for the Palestinian refugees, propping up the organization after the U.S. pulled its funding on August 31, 2018.
“The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” a State Department spokesman said at the time.
In other timely affairs in Israel, it has been reported that Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling allowing some 100 Palestinians to attend an alternative Memorial Day event in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Tuesday night, in spite of a closure on Arab entry from Judea and Samaria.
(World Israel News)
