Israel to Allow Qatari Funds into Gaza

Israeli soldiers playing chess on the border with Gaza (AP)
Israeli soldiers playing chess on the border with Gaza (AP)
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Israel to Allow Qatari Funds into Gaza

Israeli soldiers playing chess on the border with Gaza (AP)
Israeli soldiers playing chess on the border with Gaza (AP)

Israel will work to facilitate the arrival of the Qatari grant to the Gaza Strip, announced Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Gantz said Israel would facilitate humanitarian aid funded by Qatar and others to the people of Gaza as long as it will “reach the right places.”

Earlier, an Israeli official announced that significant progress had been made in finding a mechanism to deliver the Qatari grant to needy families in Gaza through the United Nations.

Sources noted that Israel and the UN reached an agreement on delivering $100 to needy families, given that it does not include Hamas employees.

The Israeli official confirmed that the money would arrive soon, but there is no agreement on the salaries of government employees.

Qatar agreed to provide the Strip with $30 million a month, $100 to be paid to about 100,000 families, in addition to the salaries of government employees.

The grant contributed to putting an end to the marches on the Strip border before Israel stopped transferring these funds since the 11-day war last May.

Tel Aviv stipulated that the funds should be transferred through the Palestinian Authority or the United Nations and not through bags as was the case.

This week, the Palestinian factions gradually escalated by starting marches on the borders, noting that they will resume the launching of incendiary balloons and the activation of night confusion units.

The situation became more complicated when the factions fired rockets from the Gaza Strip after Israel killed four Palestinians in Jenin.

Hamas asserted, via Egypt, that it did not launch the rocket, but the Israeli Prime Minister Bennett insisted that Hamas would be responsible in the end.

“We will act at the time, place, and in conditions that suit us, and not anyone else,” Bennett said.

“As far as we’re concerned, Hamas is to blame, not rebels or anyone else but Hamas,” he asserted

“Our mission is to bring long-term security to the residents of the South and the Gaza envelope,” the prime minister stated.



Israeli Strikes Kill 18 Palestinians in Gaza, Some in Attacks on Tents, Say Medics

 Smoke rises from North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, November 17, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, November 17, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Strikes Kill 18 Palestinians in Gaza, Some in Attacks on Tents, Say Medics

 Smoke rises from North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, November 17, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke rises from North Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, as seen from Sderot, Israel, November 17, 2024. (Reuters)

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed 18 Palestinians on Monday, including six people who were killed in attacks on tents housing displaced families, medics said.

Four people, two of them children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a tent encampment in the coastal area of Al-Mawasi, designated as a humanitarian zone, while two were killed in temporary shelters in the southern city of Rafah and another in drone fire, health officials said.

In Beit Lahiya town in northern Gaza, medics said an Israeli missile struck a house, killing at least two people and wounding several others. On Sunday, medics and residents said dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a multi-floor residential building in the town.

The Israeli military, which has been fighting Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza since October 2023, said it conducted strikes on "terrorist targets," in Beit Lahiya.

An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed five people and wounded 10 others, medics said. Later on Monday, an Israeli air strike killed four people in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip, they added.

There has been no Israeli comment on Monday's incidents.

In Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on tents housing displaced families sat beside bodies wrapped in blankets and white shrouds to pay farewell before walking them to graves.

"My brother wasn’t the only one; many others have been martyred in this brutal way -- children torn to pieces, civilians shredded. They weren’t carrying weapons or even know 'the resistance', yet they were ripped apart into fragments," said Mohammed Aboul Hassan, who lost his brother in the attack.

“We remain steadfast, patient, and resilient, and by the will of God, we will never falter. We will stay steadfast and patient," he told Reuters.

The Israeli army sent tanks and soldiers into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip's eight historic refugee camps, early last month in what it said was a campaign to combat Hamas fighters waging attacks and prevent them from regrouping.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, said the hospital was under siege by Israeli forces and the World Health Organization had been unable to deliver supplies of food, medicine and surgical equipment.

Cases of malnutrition among children were increasing, he said, and the hospital was operating at a minimal level.

"We receive daily distress calls, but we are unable to assist them due to the lack of ambulances, and the situation is catastrophic," he said. "Yesterday, I received a distress call from women and children trapped under the rubble, and due to my inability to help them, they are now among the martyrs (dead)."

Israel said it had killed hundreds of fighters in the three northern areas, which residents said was cut off from Gaza City, making it difficult and dangerous for them to flee. The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they have killed many Israeli soldiers in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks during the same period.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 43,800 people have been confirmed killed since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas gunmen killed around 1,200 people in attacks on communities in southern Israel that day, and hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.