(Update #1 is oldest, so it’s last; the others are more current.)
Summary: On Saturday Jan 26, from Gaza Strip post-offices, Qatari staff distributed $100 grants to est. 44,000 needy families, with another 50,000 families expected today, Sunday, totalling est. $9.5million, with est. $5.5mil more direct to medical services and electricity generation. This was to be the 3rd of six $15mil Qatar pledged monthly in Nov 2018, most of each to the approx. 40,000 civil servants unpaid by Hamas or the PNA for many months, the remainder for impoverished families. Hamas now rejects further civil payment, saying Israeli April elections make Israel’s assistance too political and too conditional on border events. People on both sides oppose and approve. Qatari envoy/ambassador Mohammed al-Emadi said Qatar will switch civil aid to humanitarian work coordinated with the United Nations, details to be signed Monday, Jan.28, including a $20mil job creation project. The total $150mil November pledge included $60mil for fuel generation across six payments, Nov 2018 to April 2019, and so far fuel deliveries have been accepted.
Qatar has a history [https://www.gulf-times.com/story/619963/Qatar-Charity-renovates-215-homes-for-the-poor...] of construction projects with both the GazaS strip and the WestBank, e.g., al-monitor.com...30 Dec 2018 ...qatar-palestine-aid-economic-support-cooperation-agreement.html and wik...Qatar...Charity #Awards &recognition UN 2013,’14,’15 &’17 top-10 ranked humanitarian work in Syria, Palestine and Somalia.
Qatari envoy/amb. al-Emadi reportedly conferred with Palestinian Authority and Hamas officials on contended issues—e.g., possible Palestine elections for presidential, legislative and PLO national council offices— and offered to host negotiations for another attempt at unified govt. This follows ahram.org [Egypt]...25 Jan 2019 the PA Supreme Constitutional Court ruling dissolving the Palestinian Legislative Council[wik. It’s complicated], which Abbas previously called for along with elections. But, according to Ramallah political analyst Shadi Zamaara, a new govt would draw only from PLO factions, which excludes Hamas and Gaza factions under the Hamas umbrella.
“Only over our dead bodies will we include Hamas in a government,” Fatah [CC] member Hussein Al-Sheikh is reported to have said. Hassan Asfour, a Palestinian politician and former minister, criticised the call for elections and underscored recent remarks by Hisham Kahil, the director of the Central Elections Committee, who said: “Holding election does not only require preparations and executive plans but before all else the preparation of a climate conducive to holding elections in complete freedom.”
That follows: AP - New Palestinian political body aims to rival Abbas, Hamas — January 3, 2019
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Five Palestinian factions are forming a new political body in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the political duopoly of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and the Islamic movement Hamas.
The factions announced the formation of “The Democratic Caucus” at a news conference on Thursday, with the stated aim of challenging the two main Palestinian political parties.
Leaders said they would work toward holding presidential and parliamentary elections, and protecting human rights in the Palestinian territories.
Palestinian elections were last held in 2006 and have been indefinitely postponed due to political discord between Fatah and Hamas.
Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s government in a 2007 armed coup. Efforts to reconcile the two parties have yet to yield results.
January 24, 2019 / 11:01 AM / Updated 4 hours ago
GAZA (Reuters) - Gaza’s dominant Hamas group refused to let Qatar send in $15 million of aid on Thursday, part of a tortuous standoff involving Israel and rival Palestinian factions that has left thousands of civil servants there short of pay.
In November Qatar began a six-month, $150 million program to fund the wages and shipments of fuel for power generation in Gaza. The staggered payments, widely seen as a Qatari bid to increase its regional role, need Israel’s permission to get through - an involvement that has riled many among Hamas’ Islamist leadership.
Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official in Gaza, said on Thursday Israel had broken previous agreements brokered by Qatar and Egypt. He said Hamas had told Qatar’s ambassador, Mohammed Al-Emadi, that it refused the money “in response to the occupation policy”.
Gaza economist Mohammad Abu Jayyab said that he believed Qatar had told Hamas leaders that Israel had put new conditions over the mechanism for paying out the money. Israeli officials refused to comment.
POLITICAL FOOTBALL
The civil servants have also become a symbol of a bitter and protracted power struggle between Hamas, which has its power base in Gaza, and the western-backed Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
The workers were hired by Hamas after it unexpectedly won elections in 2006 and seized military control of Gaza the next year.
But after years of Israeli-led blockades, successive wars and the continued failure of internal reconciliation efforts, Hamas was left with little in its coffers. With Hamas hardly able to pay its own employees, and Abbas refusing to, the workers were caught in the middle.
Qatar’s intervention angered Abbas, whose strategy has been to pressure Hamas back to the negotiating table by slashing salaries, thereby worsening economic conditions in Gaza.
The Qatari largesse has also posed problems for Israel’s government, which detests Hamas but does not want to see Gaza’s economic problems spill over into violence against Israelis.
Israel initially blocked the latest Qatari transfer, then relented on Thursday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government accepted a “recommendation” by the Israeli military to let the money in.
Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem; Editing by Stephen Farrell and Andrew Heavens
INITIAL DIARY:GAZA ON VERGE OF COLLAPSE see below the fold.
Reportage from Al-Monitor (2nd item below) and from i24:
i24 News -January 18, 2019:
….The Strip is in dire need of funding, with local authorities warning of a serious fuel crisis affecting basic services.
The Gaza administration calls for aid have been echoed by the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) who have warned of a “real catastrophe” if additional sources are not found, as fuel levels are expected to reach empty any day.
The acute fuel crisis has entered a countdown phase to the cessation of health services in the Gaza Strip without any responses from the relevant authorities,” Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra warned recently.
The Strip is one of the poorest areas of the region. According to figures released this week by the General Union of Palestinian Trade Unions, more than 80% pf people live in poverty, with unemployment at close to 55%.
The fuel crisis means electricity and heating are rationed, while the country is experiencing a cold wave.
Earlier on Friday, a struggling zoo owner in the southern Gaza city of Rafah released pictures of four lion cubs that died of cold overnight.
According to Palestinian media, the owners had intended to sell the cubs in order to save the institution, which is now sure to close.
It was unsure which person or organization would be willing to buy lions in Gaza.
Demonstrators hostage to electioneering
The isolation of Hamas is mainly due to infighting between Palestinian factions, with major players Fatah and Hamas holding their own kind of leadership context.
Last year, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority stopped providing funds designated for fuel in the Gaza Strip in an effort to increase pressure on Hamas.
Since Fatah-rejected 2006 elections favoring Hamas, which created the overt WB/GS split with Hamas ruling the Strip since 2007, the Palestinian National Authority — PA, PNA has withheld funding of various kinds from the Gaza Strip. see WHY IS QATAR HELPING HAMAS? [below next blockquote] which includes brief info on US cuts of over $500mil affecting Palestinians.
The slack [for fuel see WHY IS QATAR HELPING HAMAS? below, and for civil service employee pay, which forms a major strand of economics in all modern nations] was picked up by Qatar, which now sends regular aid packages to Gaza, in coordination with Israeli authorities.
Some in Gaza doubt that the current Israeli [freeze on delivery] of the Qatari money has to do with security concerns.
"Every step taken by Netanyahu at this time is measured by its consequences on his electoral bid," a senior Hamas official told Israeli daily Haaretz. “The transfer of Qatari money does not benefit him at the moment, and he will try to extort something from Hamas in return..."
Some of Netanyahu's critics say the Israeli administration are not be able to ensure Hamas wasn't using the money for other purposes.
But if this might be an attempt at electioneering on the part of the Israeli establishment, the population also seems to be hostage to Palestinian politics.
Lately, the tit-for-tat confrontation between Fatah and Hamas has escalated into close to total isolation for the Strip.
Last week, the Palestinian Authority pulled out of manning the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which has effectively made it an entry-only point.
This has prevented a trip by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Russia, while also squeezing the resources of the administration.
Haniyeh talked to Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov on Thursday, Hamas media reported, as Moscow attempts to find avenues of understanding between its Palestinian partners.
Some also turned their eyes to the Palestinian security apparatus when a routine visit by three Italian embassy security staff to Gaza threatened to turn into a diplomatic catastrophe.
Such a visit would normally be coordinated with the PA in advance, but it appears that Hamas was not warned of the visit after the PA's security staff withdrew.
Fatah did not comment on the incident.
From
….Qatar had offered $60 million to buy the necessary fuel to operate Gaza's only power station, in cooperation with Israel and the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov. A total of 11 fuel trucks entered Gaza between Oct. 9 and 12….
The Palestinian Authority (PA) complained to the UN secretary-general about Mladenov’s meddling in internal Palestinian affairs.
The PA also expressed anger regarding official Qatari aid, part of which reached the Gaza Strip directly and not through Palestinian governmental organizations. The PA warned that this support is an attempt to barter Palestinian political rights for humanitarian aid, ultimately separating the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
Many Qatari development projects have been implemented in the Gaza Strip in coordination with the Palestinian government in Ramallah. Most recently, Qatari Ambassador to Palestine Mohammed al-Emadi inaugurated the Palace of Justice in Gaza Sept. 16 in the presence of Moufid al-Hasayneh, the minister of works and public housing in the consensus [i.e., Gaza-local/Hamas] government. The ambassador also inaugurated a project to pave a main road in the Gaza Strip to connect its north and south.
Akram Nassar, director of the Qatar Red Crescent in the Gaza Strip, told Al-Monitor that the “Gaza Deserves a Better Life” campaign seeks to support 12 humanitarian projects in Gaza in the fields of health, water, environmental reform and social development. The total value of the projects is estimated at 53 million Qatari riyals ($15 million).
Nassar said the Qatari [effort was necessary] due to the deterioration of its humanitarian situation, the decline of basic services, the exacerbating poverty and unemployment. He noted that funding would start as soon as the campaign ends and the sums of money for the project implementation become available.
According to Nassar, the Qatar Red Crescent has implemented 80 relief and development projects in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of its work there in 2008. The projects have cost a total of $110 million and benefited more than a million Gaza residents.
Qatar Charity, an organization participating in the campaign, announced Oct. 14 that its projects annually benefit 800,000 Palestinians or 40% of the population of the Gaza Strip.
By supporting Palestinians, Qatar wants to cement its political position in the Middle East
[as a rival —with its own allies, e.g., Iran ThePeninsulaQatar .com...18/01/2019/Hamas-unveils-Iran-funded-homes-for-former-Israel-prisoners— to the Saudis and Saudi satellites, “rather than an apendage”. See wik: Qatar–Saudi Arabia diplomatic conflict and 2017–19 Qatar diplomatic crisis with the Gulf Cooperation Council]
Qatar has good relations with Hamas, and in July 2018, Qatar indirectly brokered the truce between Hamas and Israel amid rising Palestinian protests on the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.
The PA slashed government employees’ salaries in the Gaza Strip in March 2017, and the United States halted more than $500 million in humanitarian aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) and to development projects in Palestinian territories.
Ahmed Majdalani, a member of the PLO's Executive Committee, told Al-Monitor, “We will not stand idly while the parties implicated in this dirty game that overstepped the Palestinian government and leadership offer aid to the Gaza Strip. Mladenov is one of them, and we no longer accept any dealings with him. We have asked the UN secretary-general to stop Mladenov from continuing to overstep.”
In response, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Oct. 12 that he fully supports Mladenov’s efforts.
Majdalani said help is being given to Hamas under the pretext of humanitarian aid while in reality it aims to cement Hamas’ rule in the Gaza Strip, give it legitimacy and prepare it to be a future partner in the US plan to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip.
Different social classes in the Gaza Strip — from the poor and unemployed, to those whose homes have been destroyed by Israel — benefit from Qatari projects implemented in coordination with the Palestinian government, especially in terms of reconstruction. Qatari Ambassador Emadi told Reuters Feb. 22 that the funds that Qatar transfers for Palestinian relief are given with Washington’s blessings. This coordination shows that Qatar does not support Hamas, but is helping Israel avoid a new war in Gaza, he added.
Majdalani said the PA informed Emadi, during his visit to Ramallah Sept. 13, that any aid or projects must first go through the Palestinian government, and there should be no overstepping.
Head of Hamas’ political bureau Ismail Haniyeh asserted Oct. 13 that they would not accept any solutions that do not completely lift the blockade off the Gaza Strip... “We will not barter the Great March of Return protests for diesel and money although we appreciate the Arab and international efforts to help Gaza’s citizens.”
A report issued Sept. 24 by the World Bank showed that the Gaza Strip's economy is rapidly collapsing and that the aid offered to Palestinians lately is unable to stimulate economic growth. Unemployment in Gaza has reached 54% (70% of whom are youth).
Talal Okal, a political analyst and journalist at al-Ayam newspaper, told Al-Monitor [that the Palestinian Authority assesses Qatar’s aid to Gaza as involving plans of the US and Israel, while Hamas] believes this aid is the result of the Great March of Return that began in March.
Journalist and political activist Houssam al-Dujani told Al-Monitor that the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip expresses a changing international and regional atmosphere with the escalation of the Great March of Return. Some parties have taken advantage of offering aid to play a political role in the Palestinian cause.
The Qatari support for the Gaza Strip has gained momentum since the end of the second Israeli war on the Gaza Strip in 2012. And since then, it has contributed to rehabilitating many sectors in the Gaza Strip.
January 17, 2019 Hamas-Fatah tension takes its toll on reconciliation by Mohammed Haboush for Al-Monitor
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Tension between Hamas and Fatah has been surging, particularly since the latter accused Hamas’ security services in Gaza of cracking down on Fatah leaders and cadres after the Interior Ministry in Gaza refused to allow Fatah to hold a 54th anniversary celebration in the Gaza Strip.
Fatah spokesman in Gaza Atef Abu Seif said in a press statement Dec. 31, “Security services in Gaza have arrested more than 500 Fatah leaders and members since Dec. 30, 2018, against the backdrop of the movement’s activities for its 54th anniversary, which falls on Jan. 1 of every year.”
But on Dec. 31, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Gaza, Iyad al-Bozm, denied that Fatah members had been arrested, saying, “Thirty-eight people were summoned in order to maintain order and calm, and they were later released.”
On Jan. 2, Hamas accused the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank of arresting over 60 activists and leaders from the movement, but the PA did not comment on the accusations.
On Jan. 4, gunmen broke into the headquarters of the PA-affiliated General Authority for Radio and Television in Gaza City and destroyed its equipment.
On Jan. 5, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry announced in a statement the arrest of five “people involved in the attack,” all of whom were PA employees whose salaries had been recently cut off.
In early January, local media said the PA had cut off the salaries of a number of its employees in Gaza for supporting dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan.
However, on Jan. 5, the General Authority for Palestinian Radio and Television held Hamas fully responsible for storming the broadcasting facility and destroying its contents.
Given the prevailing tension, the PA withdrew its staff from the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on Jan. 6. The Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority justified the withdrawal, saying it was a response to Hamas actions that hindered the staff’s work.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement Jan. 6 that the PA decision to withdraw its staff from the Rafah crossing falls within Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ attempts to gradually separate the Gaza Strip from the homeland.
In November 2017, for the first time in 10 years, the PA took over the Rafah crossing from Hamas after the reconciliation agreement was signed the month before in Cairo. This was the only item in the agreement to be implemented at the time.
Mounir al-Jaghoub, a media official in Fatah, told Al-Monitor, “Hamas has crossed all the red lines by arresting hundreds of Fatah cadres in Gaza without any justification, in addition to preventing them from celebrating the movement’s anniversary.”
He blamed Hamas for what is happening in the Gaza Strip, including all the arrests as well as the attack on the headquarters of the General Authority for Radio and Television.
Jaghoub said Fatah contacted Egypt regarding the recent tension in the Palestinian arena to make sure efforts for reconciliation are ongoing in order to end the division, stressing that his movement will not allow any plan to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Al-Monitor, “President Abbas has pushed the Palestinian reconciliation into a very critical stage, especially with the recent decision to dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council...”
See also:
PA Pulls out of Rafa,
Hamas Settles In
January 17, 2019
wik: LIST OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE STATE OF PALESTINE
January 16, 20-19 Hamas prisoners vote inside Israeli jails Ahmad Melhem for Al-Monitor
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hamas’ prisoners in Israeli prisons elected their senior leadership for the 2019-2021 term. These elections are held in Israeli prisons every two years. The results were announced Dec. 2.
Inmate Mohammed Arman was elected president.
The leadership committee began its tasks at the beginning of the new year after winning the elections, which were held by a special election commission affiliated with Hamas. The elections are held across all prisons and detention centers, whereby 11 members are elected and four others are appointed as jail wardens of the four major prisons — al-Naqab, Ofer, Rimon and Megiddo — bringing the number of the committee to 15 members.
The committee is made up of important names in the Hamas movement — especially its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. Many of these names played a major role in the movement before their detention and after their release. Hamas’ current strongman, Yahya Sinwar, was head of the prisoners' committee in 2011 before his release. He later became Hamas' leader in the Gaza Strip.
Arman, the newly elected head of the committee, hails from Ramallah and is seen as one al-Qassam Brigades’ prominent leaders. He is serving a 36-year sentence in prison for his involvement in the killing of 35 Israelis during the second intifada. His deputy, prisoner Abbas al-Sayed, is also serving a life sentence.
A Hamas leader, Hassan Yousef, told Al-Monitor that the elections have become a custom for the movement in order to promote Shura (consultative) values as a non-exclusive decision-making system — whether within or outside of prisons. He pointed out that the elections inside prisons are held for prisoners to elect a general committee, which in turn elects a Shura Council made up of 60 members who elect the higher leadership committee.
The leadership committee is entrusted with several tasks, mainly the management of inmates’ affairs; the development of administrative, financial and cultural programs for prisoners; and communication with the Israel Prison Service (IPS). The committee is also responsible for coordinating decisions and stances with the leadership of other factions inside prisons — especially with regard to holding hunger strikes or returning food to the IPS, according to Yousef.
...
The prisoners’ committee plays a major role in Hamas’ political and military decisions, as it constitutes one of the four parties involved in decision-making alongside the movement’s leadership in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad.
“The committee has a say at the political level and in any development in the Palestinian issue,” Youssef said.
He added that two members of the prisoners’ leadership committee are also members of Hamas' General Shura Council based abroad. One of them is Arman; he refused to identify the second.
Hamas is one of the first Palestinian factions in Israeli jails to elect a senior leadership inside prisons. The first such elections were held in 2004, according to Hamas spokesman Ali al-Mughrabi, who spoke with Al-Monitor.
The leadership committee conducts all contacts with prison authorities. This arrangement has proved convenient for the IPS to ensure a calm routine within the prison walls. Therefore, prison authorities worry when these committees make a decision to dissolve — which is seen as a decision of war and civil disobedience — prompting the IPS to declare a state of alert, as has happened on a few previous occasions...
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