Delay in cashing Qatari aid slows Gaza economy

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The delay in disbursing the monthly $30 million Qatari grant to the besieged Gaza Strip has slowed down the economy in the past days.

Since 2018, Qatar has been providing monthly assistance to the Palestinian coastal enclave. The $30 million grant includes $10 million distributed monthly to 100,000 underprivileged families, at a rate of $100 per family; $10 million for fuel to operate Gaza’s sole power plant; and $10 million to fund projects for the temporarily unemployed and pay part of the salaries of Hamas government employees.

Qatar approved the monthly assistance to Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas understandings reached in 2018 to support Gaza’s population and its decaying economy, as well as to maintain calm in the war-weary enclave.

Mohammed al-Emadi, Qatar’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the Qatar Committee for Reconstruction of Gaza, which disburses the grant to Gaza, assured last Wednesday that the Qatari grant is being renewed.

In a press statement, he said that the cash assistance will be distributed to Gazan families during the first half of June.

The aid distribution had been delayed since the latest round of fighting between the Islamic Jihad and Israel in early May, leading to growing frustration among the poor in Gaza. 

According to a senior Hamas official who spoke anonymously to Al-Monitor, the delay is a result of the Qatari grant expiring in April. He added that his movement was in talks with Qatari officials to renew the grant, extending it until late 2023. 

The official said that Hamas’ leadership in Doha held a meeting with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in the past days and managed to have the grant renewed, without conditions.

He indicated that during the talks, Hamas tried to convince the Qatari side to include 25,000 additional poor families to benefit from the grant.

For the 100,000 beneficiary families, the monthly $100 stipend is their only source of income. Unemployment rates are high, and last month, the World Food Program announced that 200,000 families will no longer be receiving food assistance due to a severe funding shortage facing the organization.

Even before the monthly financial grant announced in 2018, Qatar has regularly sent aid to Gaza since 2012. That year, Qatar’s former ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani announced a $407 million aid package for the reconstruction of the enclave. As of 2023, total Qatari aid to Gaza reached more than $2.1 billion. Meanwhile, other Gulf countries, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have limited their support to Gaza to financial aid provided through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Several merchants in Gaza who spoke to Al-Monitor said that the Qatari aid was one of the main drivers of the Gaza economy during the 16-year-long Israeli siege.

Radi Abu Diya, the owner of a food shop in Gaza City, told Al-Monitor, “Each month, I anxiously wait for poor families to obtain the Qatari aid, as dozens of these families buy their basic needs from my shop. The delayed disbursement caused purchases to decrease significantly.” 

Mohammed Sultan, another merchant, sells meat products to families who benefit from the Qatari grant. These families settle their accounts when they obtain the Qatari cash, he told Al-Monitor. During the past month, he was unable to get his money back because the grant was not disbursed.

More than 80,000 additional poor families are currently on the waiting list to benefit from the Qatari grant, according to the Gaza Ministry of Social Development.