Israel is considering a voucher system for foreign aid to be disbursed to Gaza, as a safeguard against donations being diverted to bolster the Palestinian enclave's Hamas rulers and their arsenal, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett envisaged "a mechanism where what will go in, in essence, would be food vouchers, or vouchers for humanitarian aid, and not cash that can be taken and used for developing weaponry to be wielded against the State of Israel,” Bar Lev told Army Radio.
Bar Lev did not rule out continued donations from Qatar, and raised a possibility of European Union assistance.
"The Qatari money for Gaza will not go in as suitcases full of dollars which end up with Hamas, where Hamas in essence takes for itself and its officials a significant part of it," the minister added, echoing recent statements by Bennett.
"Should the mechanism be like this, I have no doubt that Israel would help in the improvement of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip," he said.
Humanitarian agencies put the latest reconstruction costs for the impoverished Gaza Strip at $500 million following 11 days of cross-border fighting in May.
Qatar bankrolled more than $1 billion worth of construction and other projects in Gaza, some of it in cash, after Operation Protective Edge in 2014. The payments were monitored and approved by Israel, and Doha pledged another $500 million in late May of this year.
A source close to Bennett said the funds to rebuild Gaza must be distributed via the UN and a voucher system is one option that they are considering. Israel also has yet to decide whether it would agree to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, to delivery the aid, or another agency that has less of a history of working with Hamas.
“We are looking for the UN to be the middle man,” the source said. “We want documentation and supervision of what’s happening. It won’t be perfect, but it’s better than sending untraceable bills into Gaza and not knowing what’s going on.”
Hamas did not immediately comment.
Mohammed al-Emadi, the Qatari aid envoy to Gaza, could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Palestinian official told Reuters: "Nothing is final yet."
The EU, United States and some other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said last week that the US is "committed to providing the Palestinian people with the humanitarian assistance that they need both in the aftermath of the most recent violence, but from years of mismanagement, of neglect, of abuse by Hamas, the de facto governing authority."
Asked if the US will send aid to Gaza via the UN, Price responded: "What is what is very clear is that US funds will not be going to Hamas, and we will work with partners to see that it’s distributed effectively."