Hamas violently suppresses Gaza economic protests

Gaza’s rulers, who back Israeli border protests, accused of using force against dissent

By Oliver Holmes in Jerusalem for TheGuardian.com, March 21

[....] Videos posted online showed officers clubbing unarmed protesters and firing live rounds into the air. Amnesty International said hundreds of people, including journalists attempting to document the rallies, had been subjected to arbitrary arrest and torture.

The rights group said its Gaza-based researcher Hind Khoudary had been questioned by the interior ministry, “during which four male interrogators subjected her to ill-treatment”. They used abusive language and threatened to prosecute her for spying and working as a foreign agent, Amnesty said.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations envoy to Israel and the Palestinian territories, criticised the crackdown. “I condemn the Hamas violence in Gaza against protesters, women, children, journalists and human rights activists,” he said.[....]

Hamas has dismissed the recent internal protests as a ploy by the PA. In a statement on Wednesday, the group said the PA had a “comprehensive plan” for “generating chaos and creating insecurity in the strip”.

While it dismissed the movement as a “vicious scheme”, it also said it regretted any harm to Palestinian citizens and called on “the security forces in Gaza to compensate for any material or psychological harm” [....]