Israel will begin to allow Qatar-funded gasoline to enter the Gaza Strip to fuel the enclave’s only power station starting tomorrow, Israel’s military liaison to the Palestinians says.
The liaison, known widely by its acronym COGAT, says the continued entrance of Qatar-funded fuel will be “conditional on the preservation of security stability.”
Since 2018, Qatar has pumped cash into Gaza to fund fuel subsidies, salaries for Hamas government employees, and stipends for poor families. But the 11-day military conflict last month between Israel and Hamas changed matters, and Israel has not agreed to allow Qatari subsidies into the enclave since then.
The return of the Qatari-funded fuel will be the first Qatari subsidies to enter Gaza since the May escalation.
Israel has conditioned a full resumption to the status quo ante — including allowing Qatari money into the Strip — on progress in a prisoner exchange deal between Jerusalem and Hamas.
Hamas is holding two Israeli citizens and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. The terror group’s leadership hopes to secure the freedom of at least hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in a future exchange.
A tanker delivers fuel to the Nuseirat power plant in the Gaza Strip on October 24, 2018. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)
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