Hamas’s spokesman Hazem Qasem on Saturday said that the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) refusal to lift the sanctions it imposed on the Gaza Strip people confirms that it exploits their suffering to achieve goals that have nothing to do with the national interest.
Qasem said that the PA sanctions along with the Israeli 13-year-long blockade have exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
He called on the PA to immediately end its punitive measures on Gaza if it is sincere in its talk about confronting the conspiracies aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.
The Gaza Strip has been under crippling land sea and air siege by Israel since 2006 while the PA in April 2017 decided to wage a series of collective punitive measures against the coastal enclave including cutting the salaries of thousands of employees forcing others into early retirement and blocking funds and medical aid.
