Delivering aid to Gaza

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby stated plainly on February 22: "The internal differences and the absence of co-operation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are behind the delay in reconstructing the Gaza strip."

The GRM envisioned the PA returning to the Strip, monitoring the borders, supervising aid and also taking charge of organising the reconstruction of homes that were destroyed. The whole program was predicated on viable co-operation between Hamas and the PA and this has not occurred.

Robert Serry, the UN's special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process made this clear, saying "We have a (UN) mechanism that is working, but almost everything else is not in place."

This is not surprising, given the PA are not even free to move within Gaza. When a delegation of PA ministers visited the Strip in April to coordinate paying civil servants and further operations in Gaza, they departed for the West Bank the next day, saying Hamas had kept them under effective house arrest.

A recent report from the Association of International Development Agencies indicates that some international donors have been hesitant to disburse their reconstruction pledges due to the relationship between Hamas and the PA.

Earlier this year, the power station supplying Gaza was shut down when the PA insisted that Hamas pay fuel taxes to run it after a $10 million donation by Qatar to cover the tax expired. Hamas did not want to use their resources to pay the tax, and have instead continued utilising cement and other assets to solidify their militant infrastructure.

Not only is that aid not helping Gazans as much as it should; its diversion for military purposes is the very thing the GRM was designed to prevent.

The GRM was put in place to make things better. Aid contributors now need to work constructively with international agencies, Israel and others to get the GRM back on track by pressuring Hamas to allow PA officials to oversee the allocation of aid in Gaza as a priority. This is the only way Gaza can be rebuilt as was intended and ensure donors their money is not being diverted to fuelling another round of Israel-Hamas conflict which would again lead to tragic suffering in Gaza.