Abbas aide slams reported US plan to raise funds for Gaza

A senior Palestinian official on Monday condemned reported US plans to secure Gulf funding for major energy and economic projects aimed at improving the humanitarian situation in the impoverished Gaza Strip.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, alleged Monday that such efforts are designed to further divide Palestinians in the PA-run West Bank from those living in the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas.

“The Palestinian leadership warns the countries of the region against cooperating with a move whose goal is to perpetuate the separation between Gaza and the West Bank and lead to concessions on Jerusalem and the holy sites,” the statement said according to reports.

Earlier on Monday, the Haaretz daily reported that US officials are in talks to raise over $500 million from Gulf states to fund the programs, as a prelude to revealing President Donald Trump’s plan for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

According to the report, the funds would be used to develop an industrial area in the northern Sinai, which abuts Gaza, including a power station and factories to serve the residents of the Palestinian enclave.

UN officials have warned that Gaza is on the cusp of a humanitarian disaster and have placed some of the blame on efforts by PA President Mahmoud Abbas to squeeze rival Hamas, including withholding salaries from Gazan civil servants and crimping the flow of electricity and medical supplies into the Strip.

Washington hopes that improving the situation in Gaza, where electricity and drinking water supplies are meager, will help calm the security situation, which has seen several weeks of violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the Strip.

The reported American fundraising efforts comes days before White House special adviser Jared Kushner and US peace envoy Jason Greenblatt are due to arrive in the region for peace talks. The Trump administration officials are expected to pitch the ideas to leaders in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, Haaretz said.

Sources told the daily that the majority of the proposals for Gaza revolve around establishing infrastructure in northern Sinai. In addition to the power plant, the US plans call for a seaport, factories to manufacture building supplies, a water desalination plant, and a project to construct a solar energy site near the Sinai city of el-Arish.

The projects are also expected to improve the security situation in northern Sinai, where the Egyptian army have been battling to suppress an Islamist terror campaign in the peninsula.

The report said there are two approaches being looked at — projects that can be quickly implemented and those that will take years to complete. Currently, the White House is reportedly focusing on funding for the more immediate projects, with the aim of improving the situation in Gaza “and to also achieve some progress on the ground before the peace plan presentation.”

Yoav Mordechai, who until recently served as the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, reportedly presented similar ideas in March at an international summit on Gaza, hosted at the White House.

Deteriorating living conditions in the Strip have been cited by security officials as a major factor fueling the violent clashes on Israel’s border, as well as a debilitating sense of desperation.

According to the report, solving Gaza’s energy crisis is the top priority.

Israel and Egypt both enforce a blockade of Gaza, which Israel says is necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons into Strip. Currently, goods arrive at Israeli ports, where they are screened and then brought to Gaza on hundreds of trucks a day.

The White House declined to comment on the plans, telling Haaretz only that “we don’t want to discuss specific details before talks are held on the matter.”

Although Kushner and Greenblatt are set to meet with regional leaders to iron out details of the Trump peace plan, they are not scheduled to hold talks with the Palestinians, who have refused to meet with US officials ever since Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December and then moved the US embassy to the city last month.