GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Hamas Movement condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) for issuing a decree restructuring aid programs for families of those imprisoned or killed by Israel—fulfilling a longstanding US demand.
“Stopping the allocations for the families of prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded is an unpatriotic act and we call for its immediate reversal,” Hamas said in a statement.
“Turning this struggling national segment, who have given the most precious of what they have, into social cases is disgraceful.”
“What is required is to honor the sacrifices of prisoners, the wounded, and the families of martyrs, and to support their families instead of abandoning them,” the statement added.
The PA has announced “revoking” legal articles relating to a special program providing payments to the families of Palestinians martyrs or detainees.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s decree presented the move as a restructuring act, moving the initiative from the Ministry of Social Development to the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment.
The order said the families would be eligible for regular welfare payments, but it is not clear whether the allowances would stop immediately or continue under a new form.
It is not uncommon for countries to provide special payments to people killed in violent conflict. But the US has long decried paying allowances to the families of Palestinian martyrs.
