Antony Blinken announces $135 million in new aid for Palestinians during visit to Qatar

Antony Blinken, secretary of state under the Biden-Harris administration, is again in the Middle East to broker a truce between Israel and the terrorist groups it has been waging war against since Oct. 7, 2023.

This is the 11th trip by Biden's chief diplomat to the region. In none of the previous visits did he achieve his objective of ending the conflict, and now Israel maintains two open fronts, Gaza and southern Lebanon. However, the U.S. administration has continued to provide economic aid to Palestinian authorities.

This Thursday, during his visit to Qatar, Blinken announced that the United States will offer $135 million in additional humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories.

According to Blinken, this aid will go to rebuild some of the fundamental infrastructure that the war has wiped out in the Gaza Strip: "humanitarian assistance, water sanitation and maternal health for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank." This new aid package brings the total amount of funds sent by the Biden administration to the Palestinians to $1.2 billion as of October 2023.

Gaza truce negotiations

This announcement was made on the sidelines of U.S. negotiations with Qatar, the main international supporter of the Palestinian cause. Following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the international community believes that there is a new possibility of stopping the conflict in the Middle East.

In this regard, the United States and Qatar announced Thursday that indirect negotiations for a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza will resume. "We talked about options to capitalize on this moment and next steps to move the process forward, and I anticipate that our negotiators will be getting together in the coming days," Blinken said in Doha.

Along with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, he said the two are seeking a plan "so that Israel can withdraw, so that Hamas cannot reconstitute and so that the Palestinian people can rebuild their lives and rebuild their futures."

Al Thani said that a "A negotiating team from the United States will visit Doha alongside the negotiating team from the Israeli side to discuss the means by which a breakthrough can be achieved."

The Qatari prime minister said he "resumed contact" with representatives of the Doha-based Hamas political office following the death of its leader Yahya Sinwar in a bombing orchestrated by Israel on Oct. 16.