Qatar will provide $500 million to help rebuild Gaza, the Qatari foreign minister said on Wednesday, following a ceasefire that ended the worst fighting in years between Israel and Palestinian terrorist groups.
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"Qatar announces $500 million in support for the reconstruction of Gaza," Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said in a Twitter post.
"We will continue to support our brothers in Palestine to reach a just and lasting solution by establishing their independent state," Al-Thani added.
Qatar often serves as a mediator between Israel and Hamas and it has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to support past ceasefires.
During Operation Guardian of the Walls, Egypt also pledged to transfer $500 million to Gaza, although it later clarified the aid would not be in the form of cash, rather equipment.
Israel, meanwhile, decided that on Thursday it would begin allowing Gazans in need of life-saving medical treatment, aid group workers and foreign journalists to enter the country via the Erez crossing. As of 6 a.m., Israel also permitted Gaza fishing zone to be expanded to 6 nautical miles.
In Gaza, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar told journalists Wednesday that the terrorist group welcomed reconstruction aid, as long as it did not come from Israel, and had no objections to international oversight.
"I emphasize our commitment in Hamas that we will not take a single penny earmarked for rebuilding or humanitarian issues," he said.
Sinwar, who has close ties with the group's armed wing, said Hamas receives ample military assistance from outside sources – led by Israel's archenemy, Iran. "When I said we do not take money destined for aid, this is because we have comfortable sources of funds covering our activities," he said.
The Hamas leader's statement came on the back of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's first official visit to the region.
Blinken wrapped up a two-day Mideast mission on Wednesday, winning valuable diplomatic support and hundreds of millions of dollars of pledges from Arab allies for Gaza's rehabilitation, but the mission made little headway in resolving the deeper issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
After two days of talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab allies, Blinken acknowledged that any resumption of peace talks remained far off. In the meantime, he said he had made progress toward the more modest goals of cementing the ceasefire and rebuilding hard-hit Gaza.
"We see the ceasefire, not as an end, but as a beginning, something to build on," Blinken told reporters in the Jordanian capital of Amman, where he met King Abdullah II.
He said the first priority was to meet the immediate needs of Gaza's 2 million people and then aim to "create better conditions in which we can try to move forward."
Earlier, he was in Egypt for talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The visits came a day after intensive talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
Blinken has vowed to "rally international support" to rebuild Gaza while promising to make sure that none of the aid reaches Hamas. He also is trying to bolster Hamas' rival, the Palestinian Authority.
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Sinwar lashed out at Blinken for trying to strengthen the PA at Hamas' expense. "They are trying to add more fuel to the fire of Palestinian division," Sinwar said.
In a gesture to the Palestinians, Blinken on Tuesday announced plans to reopen a diplomatic office in Jerusalem that oversees outreach to the Palestinians. He also pledged nearly $40 million in additional aid to the Palestinians.
In all, the Biden administration has pledged some $360 million to the Palestinians, restoring badly needed aid that the Trump administration had cut off due to the PA's so-called pay-for-slay policy of providing stipends to terrorists and their families.
