Qatar has once again delivered on its time-tested commitment to the people of Gaza by pledging $1bn toward the reconstruction of the war-torn strip. At the Cairo aid conference on Sunday, Kuwait, the UAE and Turkey promised $200mn each toward total of $5.4bn, more than the $4bn Palestinians had asked for. Saudi Arabia pledged $500mn about a month ago. US Secretary of State John Kerry announced an additional $212mn in American aid to Palestinians in the strip.
Delegates from some 50 nations and 20 regional and international organisations at the conference lauded the pledge by Qatar. HE the Foreign Minister Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah denounced the “international silence” on Gaza’s destruction. “While the Palestinian people need financial support, they need more political support from the international community,” he said.
Israel was quite evidently looking to bring Gaza’s economy to its knees with a covert design to destroy the strip’s rudimentary infrastructure during the latest conflict. Relief agency Oxfam describes the destruction of infrastructure in Gaza as the worst in nearly 20 years. The cost of rebuilding after 50 days of massive Israeli shelling and aerial bombardment is expected to total as high as $10bn, according to UN officials.
An estimated 540,000 people, more than quarter of Gaza’s 1.8mn population have been displaced. More than 18,000 homes and vital infrastructure have been destroyed, while the power plant and a water treatment centre were bombed in the conflict.
The war, the longest fought between Israel and Hamas, has left 2,139 Palestinians dead; most of them civilians, including 490 children.
The lopsided nature of the conflict is quite conspicuous by any measure. The conflict has claimed 64 Israeli soldiers and three civilians. While scores of Israeli towns, cities and farms were hit by some 4,000 mortars and rockets fired from Gaza, Israel’s Tax Authority estimates that rebuilding the damaged infrastructure will cost just around $11mn. Israel’s $290bn economy is able to withstand the fallout of the war in the short and long terms, according to economic experts.
Qatar has always been a major contributor to the reconstruction of Gaza. Qatar last year started executing what it promised with construction projects in Gaza at a cost of more than $400mn. Kerry then welcomed the move and urged other Arab countries to follow Qatar’s lead.
Despite Qatar’s generous aid to support the Palestinian cause, it still remains to be seen how much of the latest $5.4bn aid pledge will translate into actual money to reach Palestinian hands. In 2009, only a fraction of the nearly $5bn aid promised at an international conference actually reached Gaza.
Kerry called on Sunday for a renewed commitment to achieving peace in the region, but did not offer any specifics on how to restart the stalled negotiations. If a clear message, however, emerged from the Cairo meeting, it’s this: there is no military solution to the decades-old conflict and the prolonged crisis is not in anyone’s interest.
Qatar firmly believes collective action holds the key to lasting solutions for the crises not just in Palestine, but in Iraq, Syria and the entire region. And the country is not just talking, but doing all it can, to bring about peace and justice across the region.