Although four months have passed since the last round of fighting in Gaza, the residents of the Gaza Strip whose homes were destroyed are still waiting for the authorities in Gaza to act to restore the homes.
The popular opinion in Gaza was that the issue would be dealt with after Qatar transfers to the Strip the money it promised to allocate for this purpose, upon the achievement of the ceasefire.
In telephone conversations between the Qatari foreign minister and the leaders of the Palestinian factions at the end of the fighting, the Qataris announced that they would pour several million dollars into the reconstruction of the destroyed houses.
Palestinian sources tell Israel Hayom that the Qatari money is delayed.
They report that Qatar's emissary for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Ambassador Muhammad Al-Amadi, announced last week to elements in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas members, that he is withdrawing his hand from the issue of financing the reconstruction of the houses damaged in the recent campaign.
"We will not interfere in this," Al-Amadi said.
Hamas conveyed the same message to the members of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
In Jihad they boiled with rage and accused: "Qatar betrayed us."
They refuse to accept responsibility
Following the fighting in Operation "Dawn", 90 houses in Gaza were completely destroyed, and about 200 other houses were partially destroyed.
Jihad participated in financing part of the reconstruction operations, and financially assisted the families whose homes were partially destroyed.
Palestinian sources report that Jihad does not have the ability to pay for the reconstruction of the houses that were completely destroyed.
"Their blood boils over this, they say Al-Almadi lied to them and are angry about it. Qatar said it would pay and then suddenly went back."
The Hamas organization, for its part, does not want to put a hand in its pocket, and directs the residents to the Islamic Jihad.
The residents of Gaza whose homes were completely destroyed recently turned to the Hamas Ministry of Labor and Welfare with a request to deal with the issue and were told: "Go to Jihad".
Palestinian officials say that Hamas chooses not to intervene.
90 houses were completely destroyed.
Gaza, Operation "Dawn", photo: AFP
"If they were interested, they would make sure to get the Qatari support for the reconstruction, but Hamas wants to teach the jihad a lesson for complicating Gaza in the war with Israel, so they don't care if Qatar doesn't pay," it said.
In the operation conducted between the Islamic Jihad and Israel in August, Hamas stood on the other side.
"Qatar is committed to Hamas, not to Jihad," they say in Gaza, "as an ally of Hamas, Qatar does not care to deal with the problems that Hamas creates, but it does not want to take part in the wars that other organizations are waging in Gaza."
Not much money
In the meantime, Qatar continues to transfer the monthly financial grant to 100 needy families in the Gaza Strip.
In Jihad they say that Qatar has huge popular support in Gaza and in total it is not a lot of money, which increases their anger even more.
The sources stated that there is a fear that the tension surrounding the issue will heat up the atmosphere in view of the general escalation in the area, especially against the background of the calls to avenge the deaths of the Jihad operatives who were killed in the West Bank.
Fear of heating up the atmosphere due to the elimination of activists.
Islamic Jihad members in Gaza, photo: Reuters
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
