Palestinian factions on Tuesday warned the Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas against waging new punitive measures that would exacerbate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The factions said in a press conference following a meeting at al-Ahrar Movement’s headquarters in Gaza that these sanctions mainly target the Palestinian resistance.
Slamming Abbas’s speech on Monday the factions affirmed that the sanctions he talked about serve the Israeli occupation only and kill any chance for Palestinian reconciliation.
They also expressed their rejection of Abbas’s accusations in which he held Hamas responsible for the assassination attempt that targeted the PA government’s premier Rami Hamdallah during his latest visit to Gaza.
The Palestinian factions stressed the need to establish a unified national front to pressure Abbas to reverse his punitive measures and called for the reformation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in order to confront the US-Israeli projects aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause like the deal of the century.
In a speech on Monday during a meeting of the PLO Executive Committee Abbas announced his intention to impose new financial and legal sanctions on the Gaza Strip in the wake of the attack that targeted Rami Hamdallah’s convoy in Gaza.
In April 2017 Abbas imposed a series of collective punishment measures on the Gaza Strip including cutting salaries reducing power and medical supplies forcing employees into early retirement and halting medical referrals for Gaza patients.
Fatah Movement led by Abbas later said that it would go for national reconciliation once Hamas dissolves Gaza’s Administration Committee.
The Committee was dissolved and all Gaza ministries and crossings were handed over to the PA government under an Egypt-sponsored agreement. However Fatah has not yet made a single serious step toward alleviating the suffering of the Gazan people.
