UN: Gaza May Become Uninhabitable

It is difficult to believe in reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. The people of Gaza, who for years have borne the consequences of the endless conflict between these two rival groups, now face the danger of starvation.

Kamal Abu Ali stands in front of the closed doors of “Palestine Bank” in Jabaliya in northern Gaza Strip and no longer understands the world around him. There is still no news about his salary and that of around 60,000 other employees of the Palestinian Authority. At home, seven children and his wife suffering from cancer are waiting, and Abu Ali must return empty-handed once again.

The Fatah organization, led by Mahmoud Abbas, lost Gaza in a battle with the Hamas movement in 2007, and since then Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip. But although Abbas lost power in this coastal area, he continued to pay the salaries of his employees in this region, from hospital workers to ministry officials and police officers like Kamal Abu Ali. However, things changed a year ago.

Spiegel Online reports in an exclusive article that Abbas reduced the salaries paid in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007 to pressure Hamas. Last year they sometimes received half or a quarter of their money. But not receiving a salary at all is a new matter. Abu Ali now has to sell his refrigerator and washing machine to get money. But no one knows how he will then pay his installments or provide medicine for his wife.

The Ministry of Finance of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah announced last week that salaries were not paid due to technical difficulties. But Palestinians cannot be sure of this claim. Osama Antar, a graduate of political science from the University of Münster who now works at the “Friedrich Ebert Foundation” office in Gaza, is certain that this is Abbas’s “new method.”

Abbas considers national reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas to be failed. Arab media reported on Wednesday, April 11, about Abbas’s six-day ultimatum. According to this ultimatum, Hamas must either return the Gaza coastal strip or the Palestinian Authority will henceforth treat this area as a “rebel zone.” Osama Antar says: “This will mean the collapse of the banking system, economy, public sector and basically everything.”

The problem is that the Palestinian Authority in the Gaza Strip provides not only the salaries of government employees but also electricity, water, and medicine. Abbas is trying to force Hamas to compromise for the sake of the people of Gaza by cutting off this assistance. The people of Gaza have been suffering for years from multiple wars and 11 years of blockade by Israel.

The consequences can be seen in the streets of Gaza: carts move instead of cars, and the sea blue color that was once popular has turned brown-green due to abundant algae and untreated sewage has severely polluted it. The unemployment and poverty rates are approximately 50 and 80 percent respectively. All these factors have prompted a warning from the United Nations. The organization warned that Gaza may become “uninhabitable” by 2020.

The United Nations says that signs of uninhabitability can already be seen now: living conditions in the Gaza Strip are severely deteriorating. Due to high youth unemployment, lack of drinking water, and numerous shortcomings in health and sanitation, normal life in Gaza is no longer possible.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides education, food, and health services to 1 million 300,000 people in Gaza, which includes 70 percent of the city’s population. However, following a $300 million cut in American aid, the agency warned that it may no longer be able to provide for the people of Gaza. And if such a thing happens, famine will grip this region.

“Weakly-founded” Reconciliation Efforts

In October 2017, serious steps were taken to reconcile the two rival groups Fatah and Hamas, but when the convoy carrying Rami Hamdallah, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, was attacked while visiting Gaza in March 2018, Mahmoud Abbas cut off reconciliation talks.

Observers say Abbas never believed that reconciliation with Hamas was possible. According to them, Abbas is not willing to compromise with Hamas and wants to achieve all his demands at once, while this is not possible. Palestinians want to have one country and one state, which means the integration or rapid disarmament of all armed groups, which is not feasible. Abbas even refuses to accept the gradual disarmament of Hamas and other paramilitary groups such as the Al-Aqsa Brigades and the Islamic Jihad organization.

“Abbas Has Lost Majority Support”

Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Policy and Research Institute in Ramallah, says that Mahmoud Abbas believes in peaceful resistance, while the majority of Palestinians believe that armed groups should remain until a final peace with Israel.

Shikaki says that Mahmoud Abbas, who has continuously ruled the West Bank of the Jordan River for 13 years, has lost the support of the majority. According to him, in Gaza, Abbas is held responsible for the failure of reconciliation talks.

Shikaki continues that the terrorist organization Hamas no longer wants to run the blockaded Gaza Strip and does not want a new war either. For this reason, Hamas has resorted to other methods to reduce pressure and strongly supports the “march of return” to the homeland (Israel).

Shikaki says that this march, which began on March 30 this year and has so far caused dozens of deaths, may bring some successes. For example, “Israel may be forced to reduce the blockade of the region or pressure Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing.” Or “Muhammad Dahlan may be willing to accept part of the power.”

Muhammad Dahlan, former head of the Palestinian Authority’s security apparatus, still enjoys popularity in Gaza. In 2011, after being blamed for the killing of Yasser Arafat, former head of the Palestinian Authority, and being removed from the Fatah organization, he fled to the United Arab Emirates.

Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Policy and Research Institute in Ramallah, says, but this does not help either, because Abbas dislikes Muhammad Dahlan more than Hamas, and of course will not accept his return to power in Gaza.

Source: DW