Why did Ismaël Haniyeh meet the Emir of Qatar?

Ismaël Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, met, alongside a delegation from the movement’s leadership, the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Sunday evening at the Amiri Court in Doha, at a time when the international community is pressuring to prevent the entry of funds for reconstruction through armed factions, and stressing the need for the funds to enter legally through the Palestinian Authority.

Haniyeh’s meeting with the Emir of Qatar included receiving promises and agreements to provide financial support to the Hamas Muslim Brotherhood movement in the coming days to implement the Qatari Brotherhood’s plans in the Gaza Strip, through contributing to the reconstruction of the destroyed Strip, according to informed sources, stressing that the plan aims to involve Hamas and Qatar in the reconstruction, to completely acquit the Brotherhood movement from the destruction that has hit Gaza, and to hold the responsibility of the injured and the dead solely to the occupation, and to overlook Iran’s involvement in the escalation that took place in the Palestinian territories over the past two weeks.

The sources added that Haniyeh informed Tamim bin Hamad of Hamas’s loss of popularity in Gaza after the recent events, and that Hamas is equally responsible with Israel for the civilian deaths, which revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood movement traded the Palestinian cause to serve the agenda of the organization and the countries that support it.

The Emir of Qatar confirmed that he will hand over large sums of money to Ismaël Haniyeh, part of which will be used to rebuild and restructure the Qatari Red Crescent building and the Al Jazeera headquarters that were destroyed in East Jerusalem, pointing out that his conditions are that the restructuring of the offices should be a priority for Hamas.

Discussions are underway to change the way the Qatari grant enters Gaza, which requires the delivery of funds through Hamas. It is being discussed that the money will be handed over to the Palestinian Authority in order to ensure that it is not used to buy weapons. Qatar has provided, with Israeli approval, substantial funding to Hamas in recent years, estimated at millions of dollars a month for the basic purpose of paying the salaries of administrative workers, but it is being used for other side-effects due to the huge sums, according to Reuters.

The agency said that a month arrives a delegate from Qatar accompanied by Israeli soldiers to pay the salaries of Hamas administrative workers, and then disappears.