Delay in cashing Qatari aid slows Gaza economy
The delay in disbursing monthly aid to the Gaza Strip population is weighing on the economy, since the payments represent the sole source of income to some 100,000 families.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The delay in disbursing the monthly $30 million Qatari grant to the besieged Gaza Strip has slowed down the economy in the past days.
Since 2018, Qatar has been providing monthly assistance to the Palestinian coastal enclave. The $30 million grant includes $10 million distributed monthly to 100,000 underprivileged families, at a rate of $100 per family; $10 million for fuel to operate Gaza’s sole power plant; and $10 million to fund projects for the temporarily unemployed and pay part of the salaries of Hamas government employees.
Qatar approved the monthly assistance to Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas understandings reached in 2018 to support Gaza’s population and its decaying economy, as well as to maintain calm in the war-weary enclave.
Mohammed al-Emadi, Qatar’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the Qatar Committee for Reconstruction of Gaza, which disburses the grant to Gaza, assured last Wednesday that the Qatari grant is being renewed.
