Palestinian Pres Abbas makes a statement the US and Israel, refuses to pay electric bill for Gaza residents – PB/TK
Abbas turns screw on Hamas by cutting Gaza’s electricity – By Nidal al-Mughrabi April 27 2017
GAZA (Reuters) – With the prospect looming of a Middle East peace initiative by a new U.S. administration more sympathetic to Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to turn the screw on the Hamas group that has kept Gaza out of his control for a decade.
Abbas’s Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA) on Thursday told Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity Israel supplies to Gaza, a move that could lead to a complete power shutdown in the territory, whose 2 million people already endure blackouts for much of the day.
Israel does not engage directly with Hamas, regarding the Islamist group as a terrorist organization.
The PA declined to say why it had taken the step, but had already put pressure on Hamas by withholding the Israeli fuel that until two weeks ago powered Gaza’s only generating plant, and slashing the salaries of the civil servants who are one of the mainstays of Gaza’s struggling economy.
Medical workers say health services are on the verge of breakdown, while shopkeepers say they are struggling.
Hamas official Ismail Rudwan reacted with fury, warning of “an explosion in the face of the Zionist occupation” and saying that anyone who had “collaborated with the occupation” would have cause for regret, whether from the PA or not.
Continue to oann.com article: http://www.oann.com/abbas-turns-screw-on-hamas-by-cutting-gazas-electricity-2/
