According to the report, Qatari envoy told the leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups that it would be “very difficult to renew the cash grant, estimated at $30 million per month.”
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHQatari envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi gestures during an interview with Reuters in Gaza City, August 24, 2019(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)Qatar’s cash grants to the Gaza Strip may stop at the end of this year, the Hezbolah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Tuesday.According to the report, Qatari envoy Mohammed Elamadi, who recently visited the Gaza Strip, told the leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian groups that it would be “very difficult to renew the cash grant, estimated at $30 million per month.”The newspaper said that 109,000 families benefited from the Qatari grant. In addition, Qatar has been covering parts of the cost of fuel purchased from Israel to keep the Gaza Strip’s power plant running.Al-Akhbar quoted sources in Hamas as saying the group’s leaders are hoping that Qatar will continue to deliver the cash grants to the Gaza Strip. “Failure to renew [the grants] means that we will be headed toward an explosion” against Israel, the sources said.The sources said that if the Qatari grants are halted, Israel should either transfer tax funds it collects on behalf of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Finance or completely lift the blockade on the coastal enclave.
