GAZA: An education and health dispute which has sparked a strike in Gaza is deepening the rift between Hamas and Fatah and may harm chances of Palestinian reunification, a United Nations envoy said yesterday.
Middle East envoy Robert Serry made the remarks as a pro-Fatah employees' union in Gaza announced plans to extend the strike, involving thousands of education and healthcare workers, for another week.
Some 85 per cent of education workers and about 70 per cent of primary care personnel have walked off their jobs in Gaza since Saturday, paralysing services, a UN source said. They accuse the Hamas rulers of the territory of transferring Fatah supporters from their posts.
In a statement, Mr Serry expressed concern at the reported transfer and replacement of health and teaching professionals in the Gaza Strip. "These actions and the subsequent strike called by unions threaten the provision of health and education services to the people of Gaza, who already face considerable hardship," he said, alluding to an Israeli blockade which already limits supplies.
Israel has restricted border crossings into Gaza since Hamas Islamists seized the territory violently from Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement a year ago.
Mr Serry said that the situation created by the strike had further entrenched the division between Gaza and the West Bank and could prejudice the prospects for Palestinian reunification.
Palestinian factions have made little progress in talks held in Egypt to reconcile the divisions which, added to differences with Israel, have further complicated chances of achieving a goal of statehood in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Bassem Zakarna, head of the pro-Fatah union, said that the Gaza sanctions, initially planned for four days, would continue for another week to press Hamas to reverse its policy and end its seizure of a teachers' union headquarters. Hamas has condemned the strike and denies that services have been paralysed. It rejects accusations that its officials have moved personnel for political motives. - (Reuters)