Protests against Gaza curbs escalate

Palestinian protests are escalating after the failure of Egyptian-led efforts to broker a deal between the militant group Hamas and Israeli occupation regime to ease the Gaza blockade.

In the third protest this week, Palestinians gathered yesterday along Israel’s perimeter fence in the Central Gaza Strip. On Tuesday, they marched near the Erez border post between Gaza and Israel, and a day earlier they marched on the beach boundary.

Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, vowed to step up the campaign that had been limited to weekly protests on Fridays.

The group accuses the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority of derailing regional efforts to broker a deal to end the marches in exchange for lifting of the closure, which Israel and Egypt imposed in response to Hamas’ takeover of Gaza.

Israeli regime fire has killed 133 people since March.

UN workers protest

Meanwhile, thousands of employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees protested in Gaza yesterday against forced redundancies as a result of US funding cuts, announcing a one-day strike next week.

More than 5,000 people attended the march that began at the Gaza headquarters of UNRWA, including senior figures from Hamas and other political factions.

The agency announced it would cut more than 250 jobs in Gaza and the West Bank and make over 500 other positions part-time, as it seeks to survive crippling financial shortfalls caused by US aid cuts.