AFP, Gaza City :
Qatar said Friday it would work with the UN to distribute aid to Gaza after the Palestinian enclave’s rulers Hamas rejected a cash injection over alleged unacceptable Israeli conditions.
Later in the day thousands of protesters again gathered along the Gaza-Israel border, where the territory’s health ministry said one Palestinian was killed by Israeli army fire.
The Qatari ambassador to the Gaza Strip, Mohammed al-Emadi, said that his country would now channel millions of dollars in humanitarian projects “in full coordination with the United Nations”.
A first package of agreements, worth $20 million (17.6 million euros), will be signed with the United Nations on Monday, he told reporters in Gaza City.
Details of the scheme are so far unclear and there was no immediate comment from the UN. Under an informal agreement struck in November, $90 million in Qatari aid was set to be transferred in six monthly instalments to Gaza.
The money paid salaries of Hamas employees and helped impoverished Gazans in exchange for relative calm along the border, where often violent protests have taken place since March 2018.
On Friday a Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in renewed border clashes, with a further 22 shot, the health ministry in Gaza said.
The Israeli army said around 10,000 people “rioted in a number of locations along the fence,” including throwing stones and grenades at soldiers, who responded with “riot dispersal means”.
Since protests broke out last March at least 245 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, the majority during border protests but also by tank fire and airstrikes.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in the same period. The renewed border clashes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blocked the latest Qatari cash injection which was due this week.
The Israeli leader took the decision after two shooting incidents along the Gaza-Israel border, including one in which a soldier was lightly injured by Palestinian fire.
Israel’s permission is required since the cash must be delivered via its territory.
The authorities eventually relented and gave the go-ahead for the delayed transfer, which follows two $15 million payments delivered to Hamas since the November deal.
But Hamas announced Thursday it would not accept it, charging Israel with adding conditions not covered by the agreement.
The Islamist group did not give further details, while the future of payments to Hamas employees remains unclear.
Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, European Union and others, has ruled Gaza since seizing control from the internationally recognised Palestinian government in 2007.
It has fought three wars with Israel since then.
