Hamas praises UNRWA for its stance on Gaza siege

Hamas praised UNRWA Commissioner-General for Palestinian refugees Filippo Grandi’s “humanitarian stance and the leadership” in which he called for the lifting of the “unjust siege on Gaza and for Egypt to open the Rafah border”, a spokesperson for the group said yesterday.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Grandi’s statement depict the enormity of the humanitarian crisis plaguing the Gaza Strip, where people are forced to live in a big prison due to the siege and the closure of the border crossings for more than eight years.

He added: “We appreciate this stance and praise it and we beseech the international community and humanitarian institutions and Arab and Islamic countries to act to end the longest siege in modern history and enable nearly two million people to live in freedom and dignity like the rest of the world.”

Barhoum called on the UN to intensify its efforts to end the human suffering of the population of the Gaza Strip, calling the siege “illegal and immoral”.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry criticised Grandi’s call to open the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip to ease the blockade on the Strip.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ambassador Badr Abdel-Atti said Egypt expects that the UN and its agencies to coordinate their positions with the principles and decisions of the relevant country in question.

Abdel-Atti added that it is the responsibility of UNRWA to be precise and professional in their statements, just as Egypt expects the organisation to urge the international community to implement these decisions and abide by them.

Grandi said that the responsibilities of the siege on Gaza lies both in the hands of Israel and Egypt, and that the civilians of Gaza must be spared the consequence of any conflict.