Qatar funds Gaza to ease tensions
11 November, 2018
Palestinian civil servants formed long queues in Gaza on Friday to receive millions of dollars in Qatari-funded salaries, as part of efforts to ease tensions in and around the impoverished territory.
For the second consecutive Friday, clashes along the Gaza-Israel border were less violent than in previous weeks, although one Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire and 37 others wounded by gunshots, the Gaza health ministry said.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at points along the frontier but most kept a distance from the separation barrier, correspondents said.
In Qatar’s operation, a total of $90 million is to be distributed in six monthly installments of $15 million, according to authorities, primarily to cover salaries of officials working for Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Palestinian enclave.
Some exited post offices, where the first installment was being distributed, to show off hundred-dollar bills before the cameras, after several months of sporadic salary payments in cash-strapped Gaza.
The money was driven into the Palestinian enclave through Israel late Thursday by Qatar’s envoy to Gaza, Mohammed al-Emadi, transporting suitcases packed with dollars, according to a Hamas source.
The Israeli-authorized money transfer appeared to be part of a deal that would see cash-strapped Hamas end months of often violent protests along the border in exchange for Israel easing its blockade of Gaza.
Qatar has also said it would hand out $100 to each of 50,000 poor families, as well as larger sums to Palestinians wounded in clashes along Gaza’s border with Israel.