Palestinian Prime Minister Signals Easing of Moves to Pressure Gazans against Hamas

The Palestinian Authority is bowing to pressure from those who believe its campaign to make residents of the Gaza Strip long for a return to Fatah (Palestinian Authority) rule is causing undue misery and unacceptable collective punishment. On Saturday, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said payments would resume to some 6,000 civil employees in Gaza who were recently told they would cease to receive salaries. While not admitting to any particular source of pressure, the PA has come under fire from Palestinian and international human rights groups. In July, a PA spokesman said the stringent measures against Gazans were non-permanent moves to force Hamas – which wrestled control of Gaza from Fatah in 2007 – to return control to the PA. Medical vouchers were cancelled, denying Gazans the ability to receive life-saving treatments in Israeli hospitals; and the PA stopped paying for fuel for the Gaza power plant which resulted in a reduction in the amount of time electricity is available for residents each day. Currently, it’s about four hours. Medical Aid for Palestinians, a British-based non-governmental organization, claims that 25 Palestinians have died because of the difficulty in obtaining necessary treatment outside of the Gaza Strip.