GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) –a Hamas welcomed on Friday an agreement reached with Qatar to resume aid payments to thousands of families in the Gaza Strip.
“The announcement by the brothers in Qatar about reaching an agreement with the United Nations to bring in part of the Qatari grant is part of an appreciated Qatari effort to ease the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said.
Qatar has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza’s poorest families in recent years.
The funds have been a key source of stability for the impoverished territory, where unemployment is hovering at around 50 percent.
But since the May war, the Zionist regime has blocked the payments.
The Zionist regime and Egypt have maintained a tight blockade on the territory since 2007. The blockade, which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, has crushed the area’s economy.
Fifty-three Democratic members of the U.S. Congress have warned of the grim humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and denounced the Zionist regime’s ban on the entry of essential materials into the impoverished coastal enclave and collective punishment of Palestinians there.
The lawmakers, in a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, described the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza as “untenable.”
“Ensuring that Palestinians residing in Gaza receive humanitarian aid is vital to securing the well-being of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents,” the letter continued.
The legislators, led by Mark Pocan and Debbie Dingell, noted that Gaza’s humanitarian situation has been “exacerbated” three months after the Zionist regime’s 11-day onslaught on the strip which killed more than 250 people, including women and children, and “left an estimated 1.3 million Palestinians in need of humanitarian assistance.”
“Unfortunately the recent Israeli air campaign in Gaza has only worsened living conditions, inflicting $380 million in damage to the beleaguered Strip and necessitating $485 million in immediate humanitarian and reconstruction aid,” the letter highlighted.
The letter then called on Blinken to work with the Zionist regime and Egypt, clearly state which materials are allowed into the Gaza Strip.
The siege has inflicted severe hardship on residents. The poverty rate among Gaza’s population has reached 53 percent, while “extreme poverty” stands at 33.8 percent, according to statistics by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
About 68 percent of families do not have enough to eat, while 80 percent of Gazans are dependent on aid.
The area’s unemployment rate stands at 45.1 percent, according to PCBS.