RAMALLAH, June 12, 2018 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government  said on Tuesday that Israel and Hamas are to blame for Gaza’s growing humanitarian crisis.

It criticized in a statement following its weekly meeting in Ramallah what it said were “misleading fabrications” that claim that Gaza’s problems were a result of the government withholding salaries when the real problem is in the 11-year-long Israeli blockade, its three wars against Gaza and the daily killing and destruction.

It said Hamas is also to blame for its “black coup” in 2007 and control over Gaza as well as its tax and fees collection policy that serves its own treasury while burdening the people, not to mention trading with fuel and reconstruction material, taking over state land and distributing it on its employees, control over the electricity distribution company, the energy and natural resources authority, using electricity for its own purposes, collecting electricity bills for its own use, and control over the crossings and the movement of people and goods who are being exploited and extorted by forcing patients to pay high cost for getting transfer papers to hospitals outside the Gaza Strip.

“The cuts (in salaries0 that are being talked about to punish the Gaza Strip are temporary cuts and the number of employees who receive 50% of their salary amount to 15,000 civil servants and 20,000 security members while a total of 300 million Israeli shekels (app. $84 million) are spent on Gaza every month while nothing from Gaza enters the general treasury,” said the government.

It said the government did everything it could to help rebuild Gaza after Israel’s devastating wars in spite of the major obstacles put in its way and the decline in foreign aid.

It called on the public to stand united in facing Hamas rule on Gaza and help the government take full control of all sectors in the Gaza Strip.

M.K.