Iron Grip
The Guardian reported the other day that Hamas authorities stepped in to prevent 37 bereaved Gaza children from making a goodwill visit into Israel where they were scheduled to meet the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.
Now the reasons given by Hamas for this sudden intervention don't stack up if you ask me, but then no one seems to have pressed Hamas to explain what was so "suspicious" about the children's itinerary.
The last election carried out in Gaza was in 1996 and at that time Hamas won 74 the Gaza Parliament's 132 seats based on a 44.45% share of the popular vote compared to its rival Fatah which gained 41.43% of the vote.
Since then Hamas has driven out Fatah's people at the point of a gun and in the intervening 8 years, if anything, the situation facing the people of Gaza has got even worse.
Since then Hamas has driven out Fatah's people at the point of a gun and in the intervening 8 years, if anything, the situation facing the people of Gaza has got even worse.
Hamas bars Gaza children bereaved in war from visiting Israel
Interior ministry confirms 37 Palestinian children who lost parents in 50-day war blocked from crossing border into Israel
The Guardian - Reuters
Interior ministry confirms 37 Palestinian children who lost parents in 50-day war blocked from crossing border into Israel
The Guardian - Reuters
The children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. Photograph: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented a group of Palestinian children who lost parents in the July-August war against Israel from making a rare goodwill visit to the Jewish state on Sunday, organisers of the trip said.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry, citing the children’s “suspicious” itinerary, confirmed they were barred from crossing the border.
Israeli peace activists said they had secured permission from the military to admit the 37 children and five accompanying adults for a week-long tour of Israel and the occupied West Bank, seat of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s government.
Yoel Marshak, an activist named on the permit, said the group included children of Hamas fighters killed in the 50-day war, which according to the Gaza Health Ministry claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian lives, most of them non-combatants. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 troops and six civilians.
During their visit, Marshak said, the children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and southern areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. They were also scheduled to attend a performance by a Jewish-Arab band and visit a mixed school, the Tel Aviv beach and a nearby safari.
The schedule also included a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.
Goodwill visits to Israel from Gaza are rare given ongoing hostility with Islamist Hamas, though Palestinian patients from the impoverished enclave are regularly admitted for pressing medical treatment.
Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza, said the children had been stopped from crossing into Israel “to preserve the culture and tradition of our people” and because they were slated to visit “suspicious” sites. He did not elaborate. Malek Freij, director of the charity Candle for Peace which was also named on the children’s Israeli military-issued entry permit, said he and fellow organisers had sent 40 truckloads of aid into Gaza during the war and had previously hosted a small number of Palestinian orphans.
He said that this time, advance Israeli media reports of the children’s planned visit apparently led Hamas to cancel it.
“They (Gaza authorities) thought that Israel wants to exploit these children, and that’s a mistake,” Freij said next to the empty bus awaiting the group on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.
Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip prevented a group of Palestinian children who lost parents in the July-August war against Israel from making a rare goodwill visit to the Jewish state on Sunday, organisers of the trip said.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled interior ministry, citing the children’s “suspicious” itinerary, confirmed they were barred from crossing the border.
Israeli peace activists said they had secured permission from the military to admit the 37 children and five accompanying adults for a week-long tour of Israel and the occupied West Bank, seat of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s government.
Yoel Marshak, an activist named on the permit, said the group included children of Hamas fighters killed in the 50-day war, which according to the Gaza Health Ministry claimed more than 2,100 Palestinian lives, most of them non-combatants. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 troops and six civilians.
During their visit, Marshak said, the children were to have toured Arab towns in Israel and southern areas that had been under threat of Gaza rockets. They were also scheduled to attend a performance by a Jewish-Arab band and visit a mixed school, the Tel Aviv beach and a nearby safari.
The schedule also included a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.
Goodwill visits to Israel from Gaza are rare given ongoing hostility with Islamist Hamas, though Palestinian patients from the impoverished enclave are regularly admitted for pressing medical treatment.
Eyad Al-Bozom, spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza, said the children had been stopped from crossing into Israel “to preserve the culture and tradition of our people” and because they were slated to visit “suspicious” sites. He did not elaborate. Malek Freij, director of the charity Candle for Peace which was also named on the children’s Israeli military-issued entry permit, said he and fellow organisers had sent 40 truckloads of aid into Gaza during the war and had previously hosted a small number of Palestinian orphans.
He said that this time, advance Israeli media reports of the children’s planned visit apparently led Hamas to cancel it.
“They (Gaza authorities) thought that Israel wants to exploit these children, and that’s a mistake,” Freij said next to the empty bus awaiting the group on the Israeli side of the Gaza border.
