Gazan protest continued Israeli siege, PA role

Palestinian people launched a march in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday to protest the continued Israeli siege on the coastal enclave, and the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s role in exacerbating the suffering of its Palestinian residents.

Protesters condemned the PA’s decision to cut government employee salaries in the besieged territory and said the move was aimed to “drown” Gaza in a crisis.

The protest was organized by the Islamic Jihad movement.

Head of the movement’s media office Jihad Dawood Shihab told Ma’an that Gaza, like many other parts of the Palestinian territory, has faced extreme difficulties owing to the Israeli siege, yet have remained determined despite Israel’s aggressions.

Shihab said that “the truth is being revealed” and that the plans established in the Oslo agreements in the 1990s were created to “force the Palestinian people to kneel and abandon their rights,” and called upon the Palestinian people to maintain their determination and remain unified.

He went on to demand the cancellation of the Oslo agreements, and underscored that this phase of Palestinian politics would end, despite challenges caused by the PA’s insistence on attaching the Palestinian cause to the Oslo accords, according to Ma’an.