GAZA, Palestine, March 16 (NNN-WAFA) – Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated on Friday in the Gaza Strip, for the second day in a row, against the worsening economic situation in the coastal enclave that Hamas has been ruling since 2007.
Dozens of protesters burned tires and blocked the main streets, chanting slogans calling for better living situation, they added.
The protests broke out on Thursday, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip and in Deir el-Ballah.
Yehia Musa, a Hamas lawmaker, wrote on his Facebook page that, Hamas leaders should hold a press conference and announce that it accepts the demonstrators’ demands.
“We don’t need demonstrations and we don’t need security intervention. It’s the right of everyone to express his opinion and to demonstrate, where the security forces role is to protect them,” said Musa.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a left-wing Palestinian party, called on Hamas-run security forces to stop using force against peaceful and civil protest that calls for improving the hard living situation.
Rabah Muhana, a senior leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another Palestinian left-wing party, said in a statement that the Palestinian factions should convene immediately to discuss the situation.
“Hamas should apologise to the Palestinian public for its security forces’ behaviour that only brings shame and it should stop all measures that were taken against peaceful demonstrators,” he said.
The demonstrations were organised by a new Palestinian group called the Popular Movement “We Want to Live,” which comprises university students and social media activists.
The group called for a general strike on Saturday (today), all over the Gaza Strip to condemn the Hamas police attack on demonstrators, journalists and right activists.
It said that the demands are to stop imposing taxes on products of food, cigarettes and clothes, as “the taxes are exhausting the poor citizens who suffer from poverty and unemployment.”
Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip, home to more than two million Palestinians, since the mid-2007.
The unemployment rate has climbed to 52 percent, since Israel imposed the blockade, according to the latest Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) report.
According to the Palestinian Popular Committee to Confront the Israeli Siege, the daily income of the Gazans is no more than two U.S. dollars, the worst in the world.– NNN-WAFA
