Qatar has been juggling several diplomatic and humanitarian fronts in its efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Qatar pledged $50 million on Wednesday at the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva as the first humanitarian aid program for Gaza and to provide one hundred scholarships for Palestinians to continue their studies in Doha through a program through the Education Foundation. Above All.
Qatar’s Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lolwah Al Khater, announced the Qatari donation at the event organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Al Khater explained that the aid program will benefit refugees, displaced persons, wounded, orphans and those affected by the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip. The Qatari official also announced that the fellows will continue their studies under the EAA’s Al Fakhoora program.
The EAA created the Al Fakhoora program in 2010 “to honor the victims” of the past bombings in Gaza. Their appeal is furthered through the Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia, which Israel attacked on November 18, killing some two hundred displaced Palestinians who were taking refuge inside the school.
Israel also destroyed the programme’s Al-Fakhoora House, an educational facility in the south of Gaza, on October 10.
Speaking at the summit in Geneva, Al Khater stressed the need for “a just and durable solution” for 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees who have been displaced since 1948, known as the Nakba or “catastrophe.”
The Nakba marked the mass exodus of at least 750,000 Palestinians forced to pass through Zionist militias to identify Israel.
Al Khater added that Israel’s current acts in Gaza “constitute a genocide against the indigenous Palestinian population, and crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes.”
Since October 7, Israel has killed at least 18,608 Palestinians in Gaza, 70% of them children, according to the latest figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Euro-Med on Monday reported a much higher figure: 24,142, adding 9,420 young people and those presumed dead under the rubble. The European human rights organization has not updated this figure since December 11.
Qatar has been juggling several diplomatic and humanitarian fronts as part of its efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
The Gulf state, together with Egypt, negotiated a transitional truce that began on 24 November and was renewed twice, finally ending on 1 December and lasting seven days.
The pause prompted the departure of at least 110 captive Israelis and foreigners from Gaza, according to a Doha News tally. As part of the deal, Israel removed 240 Palestinian women and girls from Israeli prisons.
Israel resumed its brutal war in Gaza after the truce expired on Friday, Dec. 1, as it advanced deeper into the Palestinian enclave, even though there are still 135 captives in the area.
Qatar is under pressure that its ultimate goal is to achieve a comprehensive ceasefire in Gaza.
In addition to its diplomatic efforts, Qatar has sent much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The Gulf state has sent 44 humanitarian flights totaling 1,464 tons of aid since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, according to figures released Wednesday through Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.
On 3 December, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar issued a directive to sponsor 3,000 orphans and 1,500 wounded Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
The Gulf state will also oversee the transfer of the wounded in coordination with Egypt for treatment at express hospitals that have not been identified.
So far, Doha has won two teams of wounded Palestinians, but Doha News cannot determine the total number of other people transported to the country and the names of the hospitals remain unknown.
On December 4, the Qatar Development Fund and the UN firm for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, agreed to an $18 million deal for the year 2023-2024 for Palestinian refugees amid the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza.
The Qatari and Palestinian red crescents have also started setting up a Qatari field hospital in Rafah on Wednesday with the capacity of 50 beds, an operating room and an intensive care unit.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said on its X page that the hospital’s operations are expected to begin in a week.
The Qatar-sponsored box hospitals come as the U. N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Gaza’s health formula had collapsed. More than 50,594 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli bombardment.
Two-thirds of Gaza’s hospitals and more than 70% of its number one physical care facilities are out of service, Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, told reporters on Tuesday.
The occupying forces continue to forcibly evacuate hospitals in Gaza where internally displaced persons and their children have taken refuge. An estimated 90 percent of Palestinians in Gaza are displaced, or about 2 million people.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that Israel “forcefully evacuated” the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after Israeli tanks surrounded the facility for days.
Lindmeier said there would be about 69 patients, 18 in intensive care and six newborns, in addition to the “thousands of displaced people. “
Israeli forces also arrested the hospital’s director, Ahmed Al-Kahlout, and took about 70 doctors to an unknown location, UN OCHA reported on Dec. 13.
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