Hamas offers clemency to Israel ‘collaborators’
Hamas has offered “collaborators” with Israel a week to turn themselves in and receive clemency as it investigates the murder of one of its officials in the Gaza Strip, which it blames on Israel. “The doors of repentance will be open for one week, from Tuesday, April 4 to Tuesday, April 11,” the interior ministry said in a statement. Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, also tightly restricted access out of the enclave following the March 24 assassination.
The measure remained in place yesterday despite calls from NGOs and human rights groups to lift it. The restrictions have stopped male patients aged from 15 to 45 from using the territory’s sole crossing for people to enter Israel to receive medical treatment, Human Rights Watch said. Exits by sea are also barred despite demands from fishermen preparing for one of the year’s most productive periods. Hamas has blamed Israeli intelligence agency Mossad and its “collaborators” for the killing of Mazen Faqha in the Palestinian territory.
The Islamist group has vowed “radical measures” against Palestinians who “collaborated” with Israel, with interior ministry spokesman Iyad Al-Bozum saying that could mean arrests, trials and even executions. Security checks and searches have increased, including roadblocks. A few dozen people demonstrated yesterday morning in Gaza to call for executions. According to Hamas, Faqha formed cells for the Islamist group’s military wing in the West Bank cities of Tubas, where he was born, and Jenin. Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008. The enclave has been under an Israeli blockade for 10 years.
Government slashes salaries
Meanwhile, the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority yesterday said it was slashing by nearly one third the salaries of tens of thousands of government employees in the Gaza Strip who have been sitting idly since the rival Hamas militant group took over the coastal territory a decade ago. The decision deepened the divide between the West Bank and Gaza - two territories that the Palestinians hope to turn into an independent state - and increased hardship in already impoverished Gaza. “This cut has worsened our situation. I don’t know how I will get by until the end of the month.
Shall I beg?” said Rizq Al-Haddad, a former maintenance worker at the Health Ministry. AlHaddad, a father of 10, supports his family on a salary of about 2,200 shekels, or $600, a month. That income will now drop by nearly $200 a month. “Our situation was desperate even before they made the cuts,” he said in his dilapidated twobedroom home. “We barely bought thyme and bread for the kids and we can’t buy tomatoes because of the desperate situation.”
The internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which is based in the West Bank, ordered all of its roughly 50,000 workers to step down after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power in 2007. But it has continued to pay the salaries of the former policemen, teachers and civil servants like Al-Haddad. In the West Bank, government spokesman Yousif Al-Mahmoud said a reduction in foreign aid had forced the Palestinian Authority to cut Gaza salaries by 30 percent. “Without this step, the government cannot pay the salaries of its employees,” he said. Affected workers expressed shock, anger and frustration as they gathered outside Gaza banks.
In Gaza City, nearly 200 people joined a protest outside a Bank of Palestine branch. “The salary is our children’s right,” said one of the banners. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade over Gaza since Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction, took power. Israel says the measure, which has restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms. But the blockade has hit Gaza’s economy hard, and unemployment is now over 40 percent, according to the World Bank. The faltering economy has remained afloat through sales of consumer goods. The Palestinian Authority employees have provided a large slice of the purchasing power that business owners rely on to keep their commerce alive.— Agencies