Hamas MPs to donate salaries to cancer, kidney patients

By Mohamed Majid

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Hamas-affiliated MPs in the Palestinian Legislative Council will donate their May salaries to help fellow Palestinians suffering from cancer and kidney disease.

“This decision is intended to help cancer and kidney patients and alleviate the crises that continue to plague the blockaded Gaza Strip’s health sector,” Ahmed Bahar, the council’s first deputy speaker, said Thursday.

Total donations to Gaza’s Health Ministry are expected to amount to 145,000 Israeli shekels, or roughly $41,000.

“Gaza’s Health Ministry continues to suffer from dire shortages of both medicine and fuel,” Bahar said.

He went on to urge the international community to “shoulder its responsibilities” and help the blockaded Gaza Strip’s struggling health sector.

Last week, a senior Health Ministry official warned of a “looming catastrophe” due to the acute shortage of medical supplies in the embattled coastal enclave.

Since 2007, Gaza’s roughly two million inhabitants have groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that has deprived them of many basic commodities, including food, fuel and medicine.