DOHA: Qatar is to give Egypt $10m (¤7.8m) to help treat Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes on the neighbouring Gaza Strip, state news agency QNA reported yesterday.
Qatar will also send emergency aid including medical equipment and medicines to Hamas-controlled Gaza, it said.
Qatar’s Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani made the decision on a visit to Cairo to meet President Mohammed Mursi to discuss the Gaza crisis, it said.
Mursi, an Islamist linked to Hamas through the Muslim Brotherhood, sent his Prime Minister Hisham Qandil to Gaza on Friday on a visit to show solidarity with the Palestinian territory.
Qatar, which supported the uprisings in Arab Spring countries that gave power to Islamist movements last year, said in October it would invest $400m in rebuilding Gaza.
Gaza was devastated by Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive in December 2008 and January 2009, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
The investment announcement was made on a visit by the Emir, the first by a head of state to Gaza since Hamas took control of it in 2007. AFP
