Hamas to unity gov’t: Build Gaza airport, seaport

Hamas official confirms $2,000 have been paid to each family in Gaza who lost a home during recent conflict.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh in rally, August 27 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh in rally, August 27
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Hamas said the Palestinian “national consensus” government should start building an airport and seaport in the Gaza Strip.
If Israel objects to the move, it will have to answer to the international community, Khalil al-Haya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said on Saturday.
Hamas was ready to support the government and remove any obstacles facing its mission of rebuilding the Gaza Strip, he said.
“There is no other government that manages the affairs and interests of the Palestinians.”
He confirmed that Hamas had paid $2,000 to each family that lost its home during Operation Protective Edge. The money was intended to help the families rent houses, he said.
The Hamas official dismissed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s allegation that his movement has its own “shadow government” in the Gaza Strip.
Haya said the ministries in the Gaza Strip were run by directors- general and bureaucrats.
“Instead of making such allegations, the ministers of the national consensus government are invited to come to Gaza to run their ministries,” he said.
Former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh reiterated on Friday his movement’s refusal to disarm.
During a Friday prayer sermon in Gaza City, Haniyeh said the “weapons of the resistance are sacred like our cause and land. We will agree to disarm on condition that Israel is also disarmed and leaves our lands.”
Haniyeh called on Abbas to sign the Rome Statute in order to join the International Criminal Court and prosecute Israeli leaders for war crimes against Palestinians.