Palestinian Health Profession Federation Goes on Strike

People wearing face masks to help fight the spread of the coronavirus walk past shops in a market in Jerusalem's Old City July 6, 2020. (Reuters)
People wearing face masks to help fight the spread of the coronavirus walk past shops in a market in Jerusalem's Old City July 6, 2020. (Reuters)
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Palestinian Health Profession Federation Goes on Strike

People wearing face masks to help fight the spread of the coronavirus walk past shops in a market in Jerusalem's Old City July 6, 2020. (Reuters)
People wearing face masks to help fight the spread of the coronavirus walk past shops in a market in Jerusalem's Old City July 6, 2020. (Reuters)

The Palestinian Federation of Health Profession went on strike on Wednesday. The move covers all health sector workers, except those in the coronavirus treatment department.

This strike is the first practical step by the unions in anger against the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) management of financial affairs.

According to the Union head, Osama al-Najjar, the strike is aimed at protesting against the policy of “humiliating” workers.

In remarks to local radio, he said the strike was not prompted by the failure to pay the salaries of public sector employees, but is rather a rejection of policies adopted by banks that are backed by the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA).

He slammed the Ministry of Finance, PMA and the banks, accusing them of “implementing a policy of oppression and humiliation against employees.”

Najjar also called on the government to hold the monetary authority accountable and force the PMA and the Finance Ministry to provide justifications for the fines and interests that they have imposed.

The PA has been unable to pay public salaries, while banks have been collecting its loans and the interest for the payments delays. The PA has pledged to resolve the issue.

The monetary authority’s measures have exacerbated living conditions in Palestine. Many workers have already lost their jobs since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in early March.

The Palestinian economy was already suffering even before the pandemic. The PA relies on local and foreign grants, aid and loans, as well as taxes, all of which have dropped due to the world's preoccupation with the pandemic.

According to figures by the Finance Ministry, domestic income dropped by 80 percent during the past two months.



Wilful Restriction on Food Aid in Gaza May Constitute War Crime, Says UN Rights Office

A general view over rows of tents housing internally displaced Palestinians along the waterfront in Gaza, 02 June 2025. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
A general view over rows of tents housing internally displaced Palestinians along the waterfront in Gaza, 02 June 2025. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
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Wilful Restriction on Food Aid in Gaza May Constitute War Crime, Says UN Rights Office

A general view over rows of tents housing internally displaced Palestinians along the waterfront in Gaza, 02 June 2025. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD
A general view over rows of tents housing internally displaced Palestinians along the waterfront in Gaza, 02 June 2025. According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people (or nine in ten people) across the Gaza Strip are internally displaced, including people who have been repeatedly displaced. EPA/HAITHAM IMAD

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that the wilful impediment of access to food and relief for civilians in Gaza may constitute a war crime, describing attacks on civilians trying to access food aid as unconscionable. 

"For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the 'Gaza Humanitarian Foundation'," the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva. 

At least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, in the third day of chaos and bloodshed to affect the aid operation. 

The Israeli military said its forces had opened fire on a group of individuals who had left designated access routes near the distribution center in Rafah. On June 1, some 32 people were killed and on Monday three people were killed, according to the OHCHR. 

The head of the UN agency, Volker Turk, urged a prompt and impartial investigation into attacks on Palestinians trying to receive food aid. 

"Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law, and a war crime," Turk said in a statement. 

The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation launched its first distribution sites last week in an effort to alleviate widespread hunger amongst Gaza's war-battered population, most of whom have had to abandon their homes to flee fighting. 

The foundation's aid plan, which bypasses traditional aid groups, has come under fierce criticism from the United Nations and established charities which say it does not follow humanitarian principles. 

The private group, which is endorsed by Israel, said it distributed 21 truckloads of food early on Tuesday and that the aid operation was "conducted safely and without incident within the site".