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Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar will provide $5 million to 50,000 impoverished Gaza families as mediators attempt to broker a truce between Hamas and Israel.
The country will provide $100 each to 50,000 needy families in the"next few days", National Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza head Ambassador HE Mohamed Ismail al Emadi said in a statement on Tuesday.
The beneficiaries are being selected in coordination with the Hamas-led authorities, he added.
The aid comes amid deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip and days after the grant of $10 million a month for buying fuel to generate electricity. The Qatari-funded fuel for the power plant is supplied in coordination with the United Nations.
Qatar has started buying additional fuel for Gaza's sole power station, allowing planned outages to be reduced to their lowest level in recent years.
Ambassador Emadi said he would visit the region in a few days to announce another package of humanitarian projects. He said the projects reflected Qatar's steadfast support to the people in Gaza Strip, under the guidance of the Amir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani.
He called on the international community and global institutions to intervene urgently in the crisis involving the Gazan population, warning of serious deterioration in all major sectors there, especially in health, relief and service sectors.
On Tuesday, Hamas announced that civil servants would receive the major part of their salaries for the first time in months.
Hamas has been administering Gaza since 2007. Since then, the group has fought three wars with Israel, which maintains a crippling blockade of Gaza.
Egypt and the United Nations have been brokering indirect negotiations that would see Hamas end months of often violent protests along the border in exchange for Israel easing its blockade. (With inputs from AFP)
