The two Arab countries are separately trying to mediate an end to tensions between Hamas and Israel after the Palestinians resumed the incendiary balloon attacks on Israel in the past two weeks.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEHFlame and smoke are seen during an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip(photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)
Political tensions between Qatar and Egypt are hindering efforts to avert a military confrontation between Israel and Hamas, Palestinian sources said Thursday.The two Arab countries are separately trying to mediate an end to tensions between Hamas and Israel after Gaza-based terrorists resumed incendiary-balloon attacks on Israel over the past two weeks.Earlier this week, an Egyptian security delegation visited the Gaza Strip for talks with leaders of Hamas and other Palestinian factions on ways of easing tensions with Israel.The Egyptian intelligence officials received a list of demands from the Palestinian factions that include an increase in the number of permits for Palestinians to work in Israel, from 5,000 to 10,000, solving the electricity crisis in the coastal enclave, expanding the fishing zone and raising the Qatari cash grant to Palestinian families to $40 million, the sources said.The latest Qatari cash grant, estimated to be $20m., is scheduled to end next month.Qatar has agreed to renew its financial aid to the Gaza Strip for another six months, Hezbollah-affiliated Al Akhbar newspaper reported Thursday.Hamas officials said they have not received confirmation from Qatar about its purported readiness to continue the payments to nearly 100,000 families in the Gaza Strip.Qatar’s reluctance to clarify its position regarding the future of cash grants to the Gaza Strip is likely aimed at sabotaging Egypt’s efforts to persuade Hamas and Israel to abide by ceasefire understandings reached earlier this year under the Egyptians, Qataris and the United Nations.In 2017, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates severed diplomatic relations with Qatar over Doha’s continuing support for “terrorism,” including the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned by the Egyptian government and is considered a terrorist organization. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.“Qatar does not want the Egyptians to score any achievements in the Gaza Strip, including a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel,” the sources told The Jerusalem Post. “The Qataris do not trust the Egyptians.”
Against this backdrop, it is hard to understand why Hamas chose to present its demands to the Egyptians and not to Qatar.A Hamas official in the Gaza Strip said his movement had presented the Egyptian security officials with its list of demands, hoping they would relay them to Israel, which in turn would pressure Qatar to renew the delivery of cash grants to Palestinian families.“We are aware that Egypt has no leverage with Qatar,” the Hamas official said. “But we also know that Israel and Qatar have good relations. If the Israelis want calm, they need to comply with our demands and talk to the Qataris about extending the cash grants. The Israelis also need to understand that the blockade on the Gaza Strip cannot continue forever.”Hamas’s decision to resume the balloon attacks on Israel was aimed at sending separate messages to Qatar and Egypt, a Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip told the Post.“The message to Qatar is that it must continue the payments to the Gaza Strip if Doha wants to maintain its role as a main broker with Israel,” he said. “The message to Egypt is that it needs to put pressure on Israel to abide by the ceasefire understandings by easing restrictions imposed on the Gaza Strip.”The Egyptians are unhappy with Qatar’s increased role in the Gaza Strip, the journalist said.“The Egyptians prefer to see Israel helping the Gaza Strip rather than Qatar,” he said.Hamas is worried that the economic crisis in the Gaza Strip could lead to the resumption of protests similar to those that erupted last year under the banner: “We want to live.” Hamas used its security forces and so-called “military” wing, Izzadin al-Qassam, to crush the protests and arrest hundreds of Palestinians.Meanwhile, defiant Hamas leaders on Thursday continued to issue threats against Israel, saying they were not afraid of another war.“We still have our finger on the trigger,” Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said. “We are not afraid of threats; we are not afraid of threats to resume [targeted] assassinations. Shelling will be met with shelling, and rockets will be met with rockets.”
