Qatar boosts its influence in Gaza
As Qatar works to alleviate the living conditions plaguing Palestinians due to the blockade, it also seeks to achieve greater influence in the Palestinian territories.
Hamas and Israel reached March 30 humanitarian understandings under Egyptian brokerage aimed at easing the Gaza Strip's living conditions by solving the electricity problem, opening crossings, bringing in more goods and distributing financial aid to poor families.
Adnan Abu Hasna, a Gaza-based spokesman for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Gaza Strip (UNRWA), announced April 9 that a temporary employment process extending over three to nine months has kicked off. The process, he said, aims to fill 6,400 job vacancies with Qatari funding.
Abu Hasna noted that UNRWA and government institutions in Gaza, such as the Health and Education ministries, will benefit from having these jobs filled.
On March 31, Israel opened the Kerem Abu Salem and Beit Hanoun crossings in the framework of the Egyptian-brokered understanding with Hamas; the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border is still operational. In addition, Israel expanded April 1 the allowed fishing zone off Gaza’s coast to 15 nautical miles in the south near Egypt.
