Former Qatari emir remembered for Gaza visit and aid pledges
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani’s death has renewed attention to his 2012 Gaza trip and Qatar-funded reconstruction projects.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
The death of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has renewed focus on the former Qatari emir’s long public support for Palestinians, especially his 2012 visit to Gaza. Al Jazeera reported that the trip made him the first head of state to enter the territory after Hamas took control there in 2007.
Sheikh Hamad, who Al Jazeera said died Sunday at 74, travelled to Gaza in October 2012 with his wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, and a senior delegation. The visit came years into an Israeli blockade imposed after the 2006 Palestinian elections, according to Al Jazeera, and drew a large official and public reception in the enclave.
Khaled Meshaal, head of Hamas’s diaspora office, told Al Jazeera that “Jerusalem, Gaza and Palestine mourn him.” Meshaal said Sheikh Hamad was the first Arab and Muslim leader to visit Gaza and described the trip as a public challenge to the siege.
Ahmed al-Sheikh, a senior journalist, Arab affairs commentator and former news director at Al Jazeera Arabic, said Sheikh Hamad had “a special kind of love for Palestine.” In an interview cited by Al Jazeera, al-Sheikh said the emir went to Gaza because he believed the territory had been neglected by those around it.
Visit tied to reconstruction pledges
During the 2012 trip, Sheikh Hamad raised Qatar’s reconstruction commitment to Gaza from $254 million to $400 million, according to Al Jazeera. The money was directed toward housing, infrastructure and health projects that the network said aided thousands of Palestinians.
At the Islamic University of Gaza, which awarded honorary doctorates to Sheikh Hamad and Sheikha Moza, the emir praised Palestinians’ resilience and criticized what he viewed as international double standards, Al Jazeera reported. He also attended ceremonies connected to Qatari-funded projects, including a residential neighborhood in Khan Younis later known as Hamad City.
Al Jazeera said Sheikh Hamad’s engagement with Palestinian politics predated the Gaza blockade. In 1999, he became the first Gulf leader to visit the Palestinian territories since 1967, meeting the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a period of political strain.
Al-Sheikh told Al Jazeera that Sheikh Hamad was personally affected when former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon besieged Arafat’s Muqata’a headquarters in Ramallah. According to al-Sheikh, the emir told aides the attack felt as if Qatar itself had been attacked.
Doha pushed aid during Gaza war
During Israel’s 2008-2009 war in Gaza, Sheikh Hamad called for an emergency Arab summit in Doha, Al Jazeera reported. He proposed a $250 million reconstruction fund and a maritime route to bypass the blockade, but expressed disappointment on live television over the lack of an Arab quorum for the meeting.
Qatari-backed projects linked to his pledges included roads, the $58 million Sheikh Hamad City housing project in Khan Younis and the Sheikh Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics, according to Al Jazeera. The hospital opened in April 2019 and became a major facility for amputees and children with hearing impairments.
Al Jazeera reported that much of the infrastructure financed during Sheikh Hamad’s rule has been damaged or destroyed during Israel’s war in Gaza that began in October 2023. The network said satellite imagery from May showed Hamad City and other parts of southern Gaza had been erased.
The Sheikh Hamad Hospital resumed services last December despite attacks, shortages and the wider collapse of Gaza’s health system, according to Al Jazeera and the Qatar Fund for Development. Al Jazeera said the hospital operates the only CT scanner in northern Gaza and has opened a southern branch amid a 225 percent rise in amputation cases.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.