Gazan banks dish out fresh round of Qatari grants to poor families
Doha says $100 bills will be handed out to each of 75,000 families; Qatari diplomat holds meetings with Islamic Jihad and Hamas leaders
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleAdam Rasgon is a former Palestinian affairs reporter at The Times of Israel
Postal banks in the Gaza Strip started to distribute the latest installment of small grants from Qatar on Sunday morning to impoverished Palestinian families, according to Doha’s Gaza Reconstruction Committee.
In the past year, the banks have distributed $100 Qatari grants several times to tens of thousands of needy families in the coastal enclave.
Doha has agreed to provide the grants to poor families in Gaza as a part of recent ceasefire understandings between Israel and terror groups in the Strip.
Photos posted on the Qatar Gaza Reconstruction Committee’s Twitter account showed lines of Palestinians at the banks, waiting to receive their payouts.
A report posted on the Reconstruction Committee’s website on Sunday said that 75,000 needy families would receive the payouts over the next several days, in the form of a $100 bill.
During the past several months, the Reconstruction Committee announced varying numbers of beneficiaries of the grants. For example, in May, it said it would give 109,000 poor families in Gaza payouts; in June, it said it would grant funds to 60,000 needy families.
A spokesman for the Reconstruction Committee has not responded to requests for comment regarding the fluctuating number of grantees from month to month.
نائب رئيس اللجنة القطرية يتفقّد عملية توزيع المساعدة النقدية المقدمة من #قطر لـ 75 ألف أسرة من الأسر المتعففة في قطاع #غزة بواقع (100$) لكل أسرة، ضمن منحة سمو أمير دولة قطر الشيخ تميم بن حمد آل ثاني للشعب الفلسطيني، في إطار التخفيف من الأزمة الإنسانية بغزةhttps://t.co/Ry2cMmCQcL pic.twitter.com/rcltAH93Tz
— اللجنة القطرية لإعادة إعمار غزة – Q-GRC (@q_grc) October 27, 2019
The Hamas-run Communications Ministry in Gaza said on Saturday that postal banks would distribute the Qatari grants to impoverished families from Sunday to Wednesday between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The ministry also posted a link on its website where Palestinian families can check whether they were selected to receive a $100 bill.
The beginning of the distribution of the latest round of the grants comes after Mohammmed al-Emadi, the head of the Gaza Reconstruction Committee, arrived in Gaza on Friday.
During his stay in Gaza, he met Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders. He left through the Erez crossing, the sole pedestrian passageway between Israel and the coastal territory, on Sunday.
At the conclusion of a trip to Gaza in May, Emadi told journalists in Gaza City that Doha would continue to provide “monetary support to the poor and modest families for a period of six months,” noting that it would come from the $180 million the Gulf state had pledged the previous week to send to the Strip.
His statement at the time came after Qatar announced on May 6 that it would send $480 million to the West Bank and Gaza to “aid the brotherly Palestinian people in obtaining its basic needs.” PA officials later said that Doha would deliver $300 million, primarily in loans, to Ramallah’s accounts and $180 million to Gaza.
Fifty-three percent of Palestinians in Gaza live in poverty, a June 2018 United Nations report said. Eighty percent depend on international aid, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency, the main international organization that provides health, education and other services to Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
The Times of Israel Community.