An Egyptian-hosted donor nations' forum on Monday aimed at raising funds for rebuilding Gaza may force Israel to open up crossings into the region for materials that also can be used for terror. The widely touted Sharm el-Sheikh conference already has drawn a $300 million pledge from the United States, but on the condition that none of the money goes to the ruling Hamas terrorist organization.
However, facts in the field indicate that it is virtually impossible to separate aid to Gaza from Hamas, which wrested control of the region from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority nearly two years ago. Previous aid to Fatah often ended up in Hamas’s pockets.
An Israeli newspaper reported Monday that it obtained a document proving that PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad spent NIS 90 million ($21.5 million) for rebuilding Gaza with tax revenues that Israel had transferred with the understanding that they would be spent on the salaries of PA employees.
Hamas directly received the funds, none of which were deposited in workers’ accounts in Gaza banks, according to the Hebrew-language newspaperYediot Acharonot. Fayyad had claimed that he needed the funds urgently to cover salaries, but a large portion of the money was used to rebuild Gaza homes and mosques, a number of which were used by Hamas as weapons storage depots.
Western leaders, including ranking U.S. Senator John Kerry and Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair, have visited Gaza in the past two weeks. They have avoided meeting with Hamas leaders and have held talks instead with United Nations officials, who have been campaigning for two years against Israel’s closure of the Gaza crossings to commercial traffic.
Israel has allowed thousands of tons in humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in the past several weeks, but Hamas and the U.N. blame the partial closure for crippling the economy in the area.
"The fundamental problem is that Israel will not allow adequate flows of materials or people into Gaza," Michael Bailey, spokesman for the human rights organization Oxfam International, told the Reuters news agency. Reuters periodically disseminates articles by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, an agency severely critical of Israel.
IDF Major Peter Lerner, Defense Ministry spokesman for Israel's coordinator of activities in the Palestinian Authority territories (COGAT), stated that Israel “will not allow Hamas to build new bunkers or use piping to build missiles.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood meanwhile noted this week, “We must not send mixed signals to Hamas, but the trips to Gaza reflect moves by European leaders who want to show more flexibility towards Hamas.
Blair Talks with Al Jazeera
Blair granted an interview with the Qatar-based satellite television news network Al Jazeera, which Israel occasionally has boycotted because of its blatant pro-Hamas stand. He said that a “different strategy” is needed to help rebuild Gaza.
"We need to get the politics right because ... it is not just about the amount of money pledged, it is also about resolving the political impasse," Blair said. The former British prime minister also asserted that he has spoken with Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu, who “understands we need to take it to a two-state solution."
Netanyahu has warned foreign leaders not to invest in Gaza while Hamas still attacks Israel with rockets and bombs at the separation barrier.
The economy in the region was growing until 2000, when the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, forced Jewish farmers in Gush Katif to stop the employment of Arab workers.
The economy deteriorated and virtually collapsed following the Hamas military takeover in June 2007, a move which prompted Israel to close the crossings into the area. Hamas and most of the international community in the past two years have blamed Israel for a “humanitarian crisis” that resulted from the terror group's seizure of the region.
Lerner reported on Sunday that despite the continuing rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel, more than 14,000 tons of humanitarian aid supplies and more than two million liters of fuel were delivered to Gaza last week.
Israel also accepted 1,563 patients for medical care.
Since the end of the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead on January 18, more than 120,000 tons of aid have passed in to the region through Gaza crossings.