PA claims UAE health project in Gaza politically motivated
A health care megaproject in the Gaza Strip funded by the UAE and implemented through the humanitarian Takaful organization has angered the Palestinian Authority for circumventing it.
GAZA CITY, GAZA — The National Islamic Commission for Development and Social Solidarity (Takaful) announced the start of the implementation of a major health project in the Gaza Strip in a Nov. 29 press conference in Gaza City. The megaproject is funded and supported by the UAE Red Crescent Society.
Takaful is a humanitarian commission established in the Gaza Strip in 2013 by Fatah’s Reformist Movement in Gaza, founded by dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. Dahlan has been exiled from the movement since June 2011 and is currently residing in the UAE.
Following the rapprochement between Hamas and Dahlan at the end of 2014, Takaful expanded to include five Palestinian factions, including the pro-Dahlan Fatah movement, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
“This relief project is the biggest and the first of its kind in the coastal enclave and serves as an emergency resource to save the deteriorating health situation in Gaza, as the Palestinian Authority and government have been shirking their responsibility toward the Hamas-controlled Strip. This has caused a major health crisis with the lack of many medicines, medical supplies and equipment in medical institutions and centers in Gaza,” Jawad al-Tibi, head of Takaful medical committee, told Al-Monitor.
