For the first time since May’s fighting, Israel allowed 17 trucks carrying Qatar-funded gasoline to enter the Gaza Strip on Monday to fuel the enclave’s only power station.
The Cannes public broadcaster reported on Monday that Palestinian sources told the Lebanese al-Akbar newspaper that Egypt had sent a message to the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip to completely open the Israeli border crossing in the enclave if all remains calm in the region. Will give
However, sources said Hamas responded by telling Cairo that it intended to maintain pressure on Israel, without clarifying what was involved.
border crossing closed after one Soldier minor injured in mortar attack Assisting in the transfer of humanitarian aid shipments to the Gaza Strip via the Erez crossing during the 11-day conflict in May. Israel last week easing of some restrictions To allow certain goods into Gaza.
The delivery of the fuel supply came a day after Israel’s military contact to the Palestinians, known by its acronym COGAT, said the continued entry of Qatar-funded fuel would be “conditional on the protection of security stability”.
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Since 2018, Qatar has poured money into Gaza for fuel subsidies, salaries for Hamas government employees and stipends for poor families. In early 2021, Qatar announced that it expected to provide $360 million in cash assistance to Gazan families.
But last month an 11-day military conflict between Israel and militant groups in the Strip changed matters, and Israel has not agreed to allow Qatari subsidies into the enclave since then.
A convoy of trucks loaded with construction equipment provided by Egypt arrives on the Palestinian side of the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on June 4, 2021. (Khatib/AFP said)
The fuel is the first Qatari subsidized fuel to enter Gaza since the May violence. 256 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed in the fighting. Israel says most of those killed in Gaza were fighters.
Israel has conditioned a full withdrawal on the previous status quo – including allowing Qatari cash to barge – on a prisoner exchange deal between Jerusalem and Hamas in progress.
Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the strip, has the bodies of two Israeli civilians and two Israeli soldiers. Its leadership hopes in return to secure the freedom of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
For its part, the terrorist group has sought the lifting of the ban without regard to the possibility of a prisoner swap. The result is a fragile ceasefire between the two sides, international observers have warned.
A tanker delivers fuel at the Nusirat power plant in the Gaza Strip on October 24, 2018. (Mahmoud Hums/AFP)
The pro-Hamas Lebanese TV network al-Mayadeen reported on Sunday that Israel and Hamas had struck a preliminary deal to bring Qatari money, despite a lack of clear progress on the prisoner exchange issue. According to unnamed sources who spoke to the channel, the deal would allow Qatar employees to cash in Gaza by the end of the week.
The Israeli security official has denied this report.
“The only agreement arbitrated by the United Nations as regards the entry of fuel tomorrow,” the security official said on condition of anonymity.
Hamas, a terrorist organization that clearly wants to destroy Israel, has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it wrested control of the enclave from its rival Fatah after a bloody series of conflicts. Since the takeover of Hamas, Israel and Egypt have imposed a strict blockade on Gaza, which has had a devastating effect on the economy of the Strip.
Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from equipping it with deadly weapons on a large scale.
Qatar’s demand to renew its aid was at the root of several rounds of escalation between Israel and Hamas prior to the recent operation. Hamas hoped that Jerusalem would pressure Doha to increase the amount it would send to the coastal enclave to rid it of the terrorist group’s fires to its south.
