Qatari emir set for landmark Gaza visit

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was due in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in the first visit by a head of state since the Islamist Hamas movement took over in 2007. The ruler of the Gulf emirate, who arrived at El-Arish airport in northern Sinai shortly after 10:00 am along with his wife Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, was expected to be helicoptered to the Rafah border crossing and cross into Gaza around 11:00 am (0900 GMT), official sources said. The delegation also included Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani. Awaiting their arrival on the Rafah side of the border was Gaza's Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya and his entire cabinet, as well as Salah Aruri, a senior member of the Islamist movement's exiled leadership.The visit comes as tensions rise in and around Gaza, with an Israeli soldier severely wounded in a blast along the border early on Tuesday. A day earlier, two militants were killed and four critically hurt in several air strikes, and another Gazan was killed in the evening in disputed circumstances. Hamas has vowed not to let the bloodshed go unavenged, while Israel has promised to hit back at anyone targeting soldiers or civilians. During his brief visit, the emir will inaugurate a $254-million Qatari investment project to rebuild the impoverished and overcrowded Gaza Strip, which sustained major damage during a huge 22-day Israeli military operation in December 2008 and January 2009.  "This visit has great political significance," said Hamas government spokesman Taher al-Nunu. "He is the first Arab leader to break the political siege," Nunu said, referring to a widespread international boycott of Gaza's Hamas rulers since they forcibly took over the enclave in 2007, ousting forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas. VIP visitors to Gaza over the past five years, such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and European Union foreign ministers, have studiously avoided Hamas officials.Israel said the visit was playing into Hamas's hands. "We find it weird that the emir doesn't support all of the Palestinians but sides with Hamas over the Palestinian Authority (in the West Bank) which he has never visited," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP on Monday. "The emir has chosen his camp and it is not good." Ahead of the emir's Gaza visit, teams of people hung thousands of Qatari and Palestinian flags along streets across the Gaza Strip, with huge pictures of the emir.  "Welcome the emir of Qatar by coming onto the streets," a statement from Haniya said. Huge billboards along the main Salahedine highway, which runs the length of the strip, carried posters reading: "Thank you, Qatar, you kept your promise" and other posters simply reading: "Welcome." Officials in Gaza said that after being welcomed by Haniya, the emir will travel to the southern city of Khan Yunis to lay the foundation stone for the construction of 1,000 homes for poor families. The project is being named in his honour. He and Haniya will make statements there, and the emir is expected to return to Egypt at 4:00 pm (1600 GMT).