Christian Aid partner Culture and Free Thought Association centres in Gaza are taken over by armed members of Hamas, amid continuing violence and human rights abuses by rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.
Armed members of Hamas forcibly took over two centres run by Christian Aid partner Culture and Free Thought Association (CFTA), on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th July.
The Al Nawwar children’s centre, which provides a safe community play-space for children from Gaza’s Khan Younis refugee camp, and the office of the Gaza Women’s Loan Programme, have been stripped of computers and equipment, and are still being occupied by Hamas.
CFTA staff tried to report the two incidents but police refused to file a complaint claiming there was 'no pretext'.
Christian Aid joins CFTA in calling upon the British government to pressure Hamas to immediately evacuate the two centres, both in the name of freedom of expression, and so that they may continue their crucial work supporting a community impoverished by the ongoing Israeli policy of blockading Gaza.
Backdrop of violence
The CFTA take-over is set against a backdrop of increasing violence and human rights abuses being carried out by Palestinian organisations within both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The two parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are geographically – and increasingly politically – divided.
Since June 2007 when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian government, his Fatah party has controlled the West Bank while Hamas has held the Gaza Strip.
Clampdown
According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another Christian Aid partner, at least 152 organisations have recently been attacked or closed down in Gaza as a result of the ongoing conflict between the two groups.
The weekend saw fighting erupt again in Gaza between the rivals, with eleven people reported killed, and about 130 injured, while about 180 members of Fatah fled across the border into Israel.
While recent violence has been triggered by a bomb which last week killed five members of Hamas and a young girl, intra-Palestinian conflict has been increasing since the Hamas take-over of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, as has the crack-down on civil society organisations.
Other Christian Aid partners warn us that people and organisations affiliated to Hamas are being targeted in the West Bank.
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