Qatar on Friday said it will pay $20 million in humanitarian aid to boost Gaza's ailing economy, a day after the coastal enclave's Hamas rulers stopped the oil-rich Gulf state from paying money directly to impoverished government workers there.
The move was widely seen as a compromise between Qatar, which appears intent on increasing its regional influence, and Hamas.
Qatar's point-man for Gaza relief efforts, Mohammed Al-Emadi, said in Gaza: "It was agreed to allocate the Qatari financial grant to pay for humanitarian projects with full cooperation and coordination with the United Nations."
He said the first agreement with the U.N. would be signed on Monday next week, setting up a $20 million job creation project.
A Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, on Friday welcomed Qatar's decision to give money to humanitarian projects.
A day earlier Hamas had blocked direct Qatari payments to thousands of unpaid Palestinian civil servants in Gaza, claiming that Israel had broken agreements about how the arrangement would be carried out.
The compromise follows a regional standoff that has left civil servants in Gaza caught up in a bitter power struggle between Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas has refused to pay them, hoping that by slashing salaries and thereby worsening economic conditions in Gaza, he can force Hamas back to the negotiating table and ultimately surrender control of Gaza.
Israel fears that instability in Gaza will spill over into violence against Israelis. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government initially blocked the latest Qatari transfer but relented on Thursday after the IDF recommended that it be allowed in.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian protester along its border with Gaza, Gazan health officials said.
An IDF spokesperson said that about 10,000 Palestinians had amassed along the Gaza border and that some of them hurled grenades and stones toward the soldiers across the way.
"Soldiers responded by using riot dispersal means and in accordance with the rules of engagement," the spokesperson said.
