The Fatah-Hamas rivalry continues. Fatah sources in the Palestinian Authority accuse the Hamas government in Gaza of inventing a supposed “medicine shortage†and preventing sick patients from receiving treatment abroad.
The PA’s health ministry in Ramallah denies the Hamas reports about a shortage of hundreds of medicines and medical equipment in Gaza. Spokesman Dr. Omar Al-Nasser said that a Hamas announcement to this effect "has no truth, and is designed to create confusion and harm the morale of patients and citizens in the Gaza Strip."
Fatah is the central body in the Palestinian Authority, but was violently unseated from its control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 by Hamas. There are now two Arab entities in the Land of Israel: Hamas in Gaza, and Fatah in Judea/Samaria, making it hard for proponents of the "Israel/Palestine two-state solution" to specify which Palestine they mean.
Fatah’s Al-Nasser noted that the Ramallah ministry had sent last week no fewer than 13 truckloads of medical equipment and medicines for various diseases and medical conditions to Gaza. The deliveries, worth three million shekels, were paid for by the PA health ministry, and were sent to Gaza on Tuesday, Dec. 23.
Al-Nasser called on Hamas to stop "playing with patients’ lives" by placing various restrictions on their trips outside Gaza for treatment. He further said that Hamas had similarly lied when it denied receiving advanced medical equipment for the detection of swine flu.
Hundreds of people – some reports say 600 – have been killed in the past three years of Hamas-Fatah warfare.