The Palestinian Authority announced Monday that it wanted to “support” international organizations in the Gaza Strip to respond to humanitarian needs in this territory ravaged by nearly nine months of war between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas.
“We are here to support non-governmental organisations and all actors of humanitarian aid,” Basil al-Kafarna, the minister of emergency aid, told AFP during a meeting in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is based.
In front of some fifteen representatives of aid organizations operating in Gaza, he defended several cooperation projects, including two online platforms to share assessments of the needs of the Gazan population on the one hand, and the difficulties encountered by these organizations on the other.
The Palestinian Authority is “able to provide information on families (the most vulnerable, editor’s note), from our registration system for social protection,” explained Social Development Minister Samah Hamad, mentioning at least “300,000 marginalized and very difficult families” in the Gaza Strip.
“We have employees on the ground (…), we have warehouses, we are present on site, people come to us for help,” said Ms. Hamad.
While tens of thousands of Palestinian Authority workers still live in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory has been governed by Hamas since 2007, when it seized power after weeks of deadly clashes between its supporters and those of Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr Abbas had then denounced a “coup d’état”. Since then, despite several attempts, the two movements have never managed to reconcile.
“People need to see us as a government now, so we can really prepare for a second phase,” Hamad said on Monday, referring to the reconstruction of the coastal territory.
For months, NGOs and UN agencies have been saying they are having difficulty carrying out their activities, particularly because of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip by the Israeli authorities.
The Palestinian government, led by Mohammed Mustafa, made it a priority, since its formation at the end of March, to “reunify institutions, including by assuming responsibility for Gaza.”
According to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) conducted in late May and published in June, Hamas in power in Gaza after the war is the option preferred by 61% of Palestinians surveyed (71% in the West Bank, and 46% in the Gaza Strip).
