Qatar Says Gaza Payments to Continue as Annexation Date Nears
Qatar Says Gaza Payments to Continue as Annexation Date Nears
(Bloomberg) -- Qatar’s state-run news agency said the country will make more than $10 million in payments to poor families in Gaza “at the start of next week,” citing comments made on Saturday by Mohammed Al Emadi, the chairman of Qatar’s Gaza Reconstruction Committee.
The Qatar News Agency story follows a report from Axios last week that the country would suspend the transfers because of uncertainty around the Israeli government’s plans to annex up to 30% of the West Bank as soon as July 1. Axios’s report cited unnamed Western diplomats.
Qatar and its neighbors in the Gulf are grappling with how to respond to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pledge to begin extending Israel’s sovereignty into lands claimed by Palestinians, particularly after ties with Israel have grown closer in recent years.
Though the two countries don’t have diplomatic ties, Israel has permitted Qatar to funnel fuel subsidies and payments to families and civil servants, transfers that have helped Hamas-run Gaza strip avoid an economic collapse.
Al Emadi said that more than 100,000 families will receive $100 dollars each through post offices in Gaza, according to QNA.
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