The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have traded accusations over the humanitarian and economic crises in the Gaza Strip, with each side holding the other responsible for the suffering of the two million residents of the coastal enclave.
The mutual accusations came amid growing discontent in the Gaza Strip with Hamas over its failure to improve the living conditions of the Palestinians and find a solution to the shortage of power and gas, as well as the problems of poverty and unemployment.
Since July 30, Palestinians in the Strip have held a series of demonstrations against economic hardship. Some of the demonstrations turned into anti-Hamas protests, where Palestinians called for regime change there.
Hamas security forces have arrested several protesters and some of the organizers, under the slogan “We want to live!” Some Hamas activists have accused the Palestinian Authority of being behind the demonstrations.
Is the PA responsible for Gaza's problems?
In an interview with the privately-owned Al-Ghad TV, Musa Abu Marzouk, head of the Hamas political bureau, held the Palestinian Authority responsible for many of the problems in the Gaza Strip. He claimed that in 2012 Hamas presented a project to build a new power plant there at a cost of $100 million that would be funded by the Islamic Development Bank.
The bank, Abu Marzouk said, requested that the power plant be built on the Egyptian side of the border city of Rafah so it won’t be targeted by Israel, as was the case in 2006 after the kidnapping of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit. However, the Egyptians said they would not allow the project to be carried out unless it was okayed by the PA. “The Palestinian Authority did not agree to the project,” the Hamas official claimed.
Abu Marzouk also accused the PA of obstructing a Qatari-funded project to build a pipeline connecting Israeli gas facilities with the Gaza Strip’s only electrical plant.
“Our problems are easy to solve, but the Palestinian Authority is opposed to any solution in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority is causing many of the problems in the Gaza Strip; there’s no electricity, there’s no free travel, there’s unemployment. They are responsible for these issues.”
Imposing economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip
Hamas officials had in the past accused the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership of imposing economic sanctions on the Gaza Strip as part of an attempt to undermine the Islamist movement and bring about its collapse. The sanctions included, among other things, halting payment of salaries to thousands of civil servants and financial aid to needy families.
Abu Marzouk denied claims by senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah that his movement was seeking to establish a separate Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip. He claimed that Hamas rejected an offer from the US to turn it into a separate state that would include additional land twice its size from Egypt.
Zafer Milhem, chairman of the Palestinian Energy and National Resources Authority, said in response that it was Hamas that was hindering the project by insisting on operating the plant with gas instead of solar. He also accused Hamas of refusing to transfer the funds it collects from electricity bills to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.
Munther Hayek, a senior official with the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, dismissed the Hamas official’s claims, saying that the Ramallah-based Palestinian government was fulfilling its duties toward the Gaza Strip. “The Palestinian Authority is not responsible for the problems in the Gaza Strip,” Hayek stressed. “We are carrying out our duties in the health, education, and agricultural fields. We even pay salaries to Palestinian Authority employees in the Gaza Strip, and this boosts the economy there.”
He said the PA was still supervising developmental projects in the Strip and paying for the electricity supplied by Israel.
The Fatah official said that the crises of the Gaza Strip were the result of the Fatah-Hamas dispute which, he added, was caused by Hamas.