Hamas' repent againt female protestors

Hamas has condemned the assault on female protesters in Gaza on Tuesday. Police officers beat up some women who were demonstrating for Palestinian reconciliation. Hamas said this was “completely unacceptable.” “The Palestinian government apologises for what happened,” head of the government’s media office Ihab al-Ghussain said. He added:  “The Ministry of Interior will launch an investigation into the circumstances of this incident.” He emphasised that the incident “does not represent the culture of the government and the Palestinian people." Al-Ghussain defended his government’s record saying that it has always “stressed the freedom of each and every citizen, making it our mission to enhance this freedom with the legal framework,” also accepting full responsibility for the violation. Meanwhile, condemnations of the assault on the protesting women by political, human rights and women’s organisations and public figures have continued. Minister of Religious Endowments in the Ramallah-based Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud al-Habbash decried the attack as “far from religious, moral and national values,” and “a brazen assault on the dignity of the Palestinian people.” Describing it as “a crime” and “the height of impudence and degeneracy,” he also demanded an investigation to identify and punish those responsible. Female activists and the General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW) and other centres and institutions who took part in the demonstration said that the government’s police force assaulted, brutally beat them and tried to arrest them. The women were demonstrating in the Square of the Unknown Soldier in central Gaza to call for an end to the Palestinian split and the implementation of reconciliation in of a nationwide campaign. The Fatah Parliamentary Bloc condemned the assault of what they referred to as “Hamas coup militias” on patriotic and feminist leaders, including Member of Parliament Naeima el-Sheikh Ali, whom they said was almost arrested in violation of her parliamentary immunity. They also denounced the security forces’ ripping the Palestinian flag and accused Hamas of working against reconciliation, demanding that all national factions come together to denounce the movement’s practices. The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate has also denounced Hamas’ actions, highlighting the beating of journalist Samya al-Zubaidi while covering the demonstration. The syndicate also demanded that the Hamas government put an end to similar practices which are against the laws and conventions recognised by national, Arab and international journalism and human rights organisations. Al-Zubaidi herself described the events of the day in a statement released by the syndicate Tuesday: “I was covering the women’s sit-in when Hamas officers arrived and dispersed the protestors by beating them.” “As I filmed the assault, two Hamas members walked towards me along with a female police officer carrying batons. They asked me to give them my mobile phone, which I did. They then asked me to give them another phone which they claimed I had hidden in my bag. They searched my bag for the phone and then ordered me to leave.” “As I was speaking to them,” she continued, “I objected to the assault on the women, so they ordered me to leave. The female officer struck both my arms with a baton. The protesting women then intervened and helped me get out.” Iktimal Hamad, a member of the GUPW Secretariat said they refused to leave the area when they were requested to, calling their continued protest “a right for every person to express their opinions and demands their rights.” She added that the campaign for reconciliation will continue. Member of Parliament Qais (Abu Layla) Abdul Karim called the attack “an assault on civil liberties and a serious violation of human rights,” as the Palestinian People’s Party also denounced the attack. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said the incident indicated Hamas’s unwillingness to end the split and continuing “oppressive policies from which the Palestinian people have suffered and continue to suffer.” The Front also demanded that Hamas cease its “oppression” of the Palestinian people, rejecting any “justifications” of the assault. In related context, Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights condemned the repeated restrictions of the travel rights of Gaza citizens, demanding an investigation into these practices, which they describes as “recurrent.” In a statement on Tuesday, the centre called the practice an infringement of Palestinian law which gives citizens full right to travel in accordance with Article 11, which limits the procedure to cases where a legal warrant exists. Hamas last week prevented five people from leaving the Gaza strip without a legal order, according to the centre, including individuals travelling for medical treatment and study.