World Bank: Arab donors fail to deliver Gaza pledges

A new report by the World Bank shows that Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other Arab donors have delivered only a small fraction of what they promised in reconstruction aid to Gaza after Israel’s 2014 war against Hamas.

The World Bank releases its report a day before a gathering of international donor countries in Brussels, sending the meeting a stark message that donations are well behind the schedule set when pledges were made at an international conference in October 2014.

“Actual disbursements fall short of planned disbursements by around $1.3 billion, and hence, donors are urged to accelerate the disbursement of funds,” the report says. If donor funding continues at the current pace, it added, pledges are expected to be complete by mid-2019, some two years behind schedule.

— AP