Tuesday 07 / May / 2024
Doha: Palestinian infighting and years of an Israeli blockade could turn the impoverished Gaza Strip into an easy "launching pad" for IS recruiters, Qatar's foreign minister says.
The Gulf country's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in an interview in Doha on Saturday that a blockade imposed on Gaza's borders by Israel and Egypt had turned the territory into an "open-air prison".
"If we will leave them as they are, people from Daesh (IS) can recruit them easily. They can start operations from there easily," he told Reuters.
"It (Gaza) can transform also as a launching pad for extremism and for terrorism... That's why we need to put an end to this," he said.
Cut off from trade, many of Gaza's 2 million people live in poverty and struggle to find work. Israel and Egypt have accused Hamas of being a terrorist group exploiting Gaza's suffering for its political gain - charges the group denies.
Hamas that shares the IS's hostility to Israel but not their quest for a global religious war, deny the militants have a presence in the territory.
Pro-IS social media accounts have accused Hamas of arresting their supporters in Gaza.
Doha has paid the salaries of Gaza public sector workers and built new homes for Palestinians after a 2014 war with Israel.
Sheikh Mohammed said that advancing Palestinian unity efforts and easing the blockades should not be "forgotten about" because of war unfolding across the Middle East.
"We believe this will be a step for having some relief for the people of Gaza. Forgetting Palestine - postponing it until later - will be much riskier," he said, referring to the Palestinian goal of creating a state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
