Palestinian Authority (P.A.) Chairman Mahmoud ‘Abbas justified a strike initiated by disgruntled Palestinian workers, and implied that Hamas should rethink its strategies.
‘Abbas was addressing thousands of government employees who were demonstrating in Ramallah on Wednesday.
Workers have announced a strike after not being paid their salaries for more than six months, since Hamas came to power and most international aid to the P.A. was frozen.
‘Abbas said the government should think of ways to resolve the current crisis.
Implicitly criticizing Hamas, ‘Abbas said that those who cry out slogans that ‘we will starve, but we won’t cave in’ are not the ones who are going hungry. “It’s the people who are starving,” he said.
He added that Palestinians should stop firing missiles onto Israel, so as not give the Israelis an excuse to attack them. These missiles have caused immense damage to the Palestinian people, he said.
He reiterated the need for a national unity government.
The Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam said demonstrators protested against the Hamas government and displayed banners saying, “we were a powerful people, now we’re beggars,” and “Abu Mazen, we want a solution,” in a reference to ‘Abbas’ nom de guerre.
In a bid to counter criticism, Mahmoud A-Zahhar, the senior Hamas figure who holds the government’s external affairs portfolio, said when he came into office, the ministry was already in severe financial distress. Previous governments, which were dominated by the rival party Fatah, accumulated debts of $1.7 billion, he said.
In separate developments, anonymous gunmen shot dead Raid Nahal, the commander of the Na’sir ‘Salah A-Din Brigades, in Gaza on Thursday morning.
The brigades are a faction of the Popular Resistance Committees, which shared credit in kidnapping Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit on June 25.
Also, the Al-Aq’sa Martyrs Brigades has vowed “painful blows” in the heart of Israel, to avenge the death of Fadi Qafisha, the leader of the group in Nablus. The Israeli army killed Qafisha after a gunfight on Thursday morning.