The United Nations and Qatar signed an agreement for the resumption of Qatari cash payments to needy families in Gaza in a move that reduces the possibilities of another all-out war between Israel and Hamas.
“Financial aid will be transferred to hundreds of thousands of Gazan people by the UN directly to their bank accounts, with Israel overseeing the recipients,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.
He announced details of the $40-million deal on Thursday evening, as did Qatar and the United Nations.
The announcement comes just one week before Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is scheduled to fly to Washington for his first White House visit with US President Joe Biden.
Bennett is also scheduled to visit Cairo to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi in the coming weeks. It’s the first public visit by an Israeli prime minister to Cairo since 2010.
Egypt was instrumental in formalizing the Qatari cash deal. Since the end of the 11-day Gaza war in May, known as Operation Guardian of the Walls, Egypt has worked on finalizing a ceasefire. Toward that end, it has brokered indirect talks between Israel and Hamas.
The resumption of routine Qatari cash payments to Gaza that had been halted due to the war has been considered an important cornerstone both in maintaining calm between Israel and Gaza and in preserving the option of a ceasefire.
Israel had initially insisted that the payments could not be resumed unless Hamas released the remains of the bodies of two soldiers believed killed during the 2014 Gaza war, Lt. Hadar Goldin and St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul. It also demanded that Hamas free two Israeli citizens, Avera Mengistu and Hasham al-Sayed, who crossed into Gaza in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The Qatari cash deal, in which 100,000 needy families will each receive a monthly handout of $100, is moving forward even though the Israeli hostages will not be released.
Gantz promised not to give up on the matter. “We will also continue our pressure campaign for the return of the Israeli soldiers and citizens that are being held hostage by Hamas,” he said.
Hamas’s demand for the resumption of Qatari cash payments to Hamas employees was also not included in the deal. To date, no mechanism has been found for such payments. One possibility has been to send the money through the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinian banks have feared running afoul of anti-terrorism laws.
Gantz alluded to that mechanism when he said, “We are also continuing our dialogue with the Palestinian Authority in order to examine the possibility of establishing an alternative mechanism for the transfer of funds under their supervision.”
Qatari envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi, who chairs his county’s Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza, said money will be disbursed to the beneficiaries through the UN and its World Food Program.
He added that funds will be transferred before the end of August and that its distribution would start in September.
The monthly installments of $10 million are guaranteed until the end of the year. Qatar will send the funds to the UN in New York. The money will be then be transferred to Palestinian banks in Ramallah which will forward it to banks in Gaza.
The World Food Program will provide the Gaza families with bank cards to withdraw the money. The list of families is approved by Israel to ensure that they are not engaged in terrorism.
Prior to the May Gaza war, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu allowed Qatari allocations of $30 million to enter Gaza without oversight. It paid for the needy families, Hamas employees and for fuel for Gaza’s power plant.
After the war, only the fuel payments were renewed. Bennett did not want untraceable cash going into Gaza.
Hamas had threatened a renewal of violence should a deal of this sort not be reached. Earlier this week it fired a rocket at Israel and threatened to renew border violence this Saturday.
Maintaining calm in Gaza is important both to the stability of the Bennett-led government and to keeping a lid on violence in the West Bank and in Jerusalem.
Israel has also been under pressure from the US to make humanitarian gestures to Gaza, so a step of this kind was important prior to the Bennett-Biden meeting.
It would be hard to advance on the Israeli-Palestinian track in the face of Gaza flare-ups.
Gantz was careful to underscore on Thursday that Israel would not tolerate Gaza violence, even though it had not responded to the latest round of rocket fire. It has, however, executed retaliatory raids in response to the launch of incendiary balloons.
“At the end of operation Guardian of the Walls, I declared that the status quo will be no longer. We will not tolerate any threat to our sovereignty – from the smallest fire balloon to rockets fired over our cities. We have responded in the past and will respond to any future threat forcefully.
“At the same time we are facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Gantz said.
In an unusual move, given that Qatar and Israel lack diplomatic relations, the defense minister said he had spoken with officials from Doha.
“I have been in contact with Qatari officials to establish a mechanism that ensures the money reaches those in need, while maintaining Israel’s security needs,” he said.
Gantz reportedly secretly met with a Qatari official in a third country this week to iron out the details of the payments, Walla News reported Thursday.
He thanked Qatar, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the US Embassy and “all our partners who are involved,” especially Egypt.
He said that Egypt was “a cornerstone for keeping the quiet, stability and security in the region.”
The announcement of the Qatari cash deal followed a visit by Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
In Ramallah on Wednesday, Kamel met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian counterpart, Majed Faraj. Hussein al-Sheikh, who heads the PA General Authority of Civil Affairs, and Minister of Information Nabil Abu Rudaineh also attended the meeting.
Kamel also met in Israel with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the Qatari-UN agreement.
Together with other Palestinian factions, Hamas on Thursday called on Palestinians to participate in rallies on Saturday marking the anniversary of the burning of al-Aqsa Mosque on August 21, 1969.
“The blessed al-Aqsa Mosque is a red line, and our people will not allow the fire to spread to it again,” Hamas said in a statement issued Thursday night. “The mosque will remain a red line, and the hand that extends to it will be cut off.”
Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.