A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday accused Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement of blocking the work of the Hamas-dominated parliament (pictured above).
"The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was disabled after Israel arrested 40 of its Hamas-affiliated members," said Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader based in Gaza.
He added that Hamas' bitter rival Fatah "rejected Hamas' plans to obtain authorization from the detained lawmakers to vote on their behalf."
"Fatah proposed a safety network which means that it can withhold any law or decision that Hamas parliamentary block makes," Zahar said, adding that Fatah prevented Hamas from keeping its majority in the parliament.
Israel arrested the West Bank-based Hamas legislators in 2006 after the Islamic movement captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip. more
Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario. But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned. "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible
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