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PA has to cancel punitive measures on Gaza or quit, insists Hamas

February 14, 2018 at 10:38 am

Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman, 22 December 2017 [Mohammed Asad/Apaimages]

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement is insisting that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah should cancel its punitive measures against the Gaza Strip, Felesteen.ps has reported. Hamas denounced the PA’s decision on Tuesday to “intentionally reinforce” the measures.

The current government was formed in 2014 based on a national agreement but remains dominated by Fatah and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, whose term of office was supposed to end in 2009.

A spokesman for Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, denounced the government’s “justification” of the punitive measures, which have contributed to the “miserable” situation faced by all Palestinians in the besieged territory. The healthcare sector is particularly badly hit. According to Barhoum, the government is not meeting the needs of its hospitals and healthcare centres in Gaza and has not paid the cleaning companies working in them, pushing them to go on strike.

#GazaHealthCrisis

In fact, the spokesman pointed out, the PA government does not pay any attention to the demands of graduates and unemployed workers in both Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas, he explained, stands with all sections of Palestinian society being harmed by the PA, and “supports their demands.”

He reiterated the movement’s call for the government to end the punitive measures imposed on Gaza “immediately”. If it does not, he added, “it must quit and a government of national salvation that serves the Palestinians and protects them must be formed.”

Read: PA pushing for ‘dilapidation’ of Gaza says Hamas