PA halts monthly stipends to Palestinian ex-detainees

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Palestinian Authority (PA) has stopped paying monthly stipends out to Palestinians released by Israel in a 2011 prisoner swap, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Information Office, an NGO.

"We were surprised by the PA’s decision to stop paying monthly stipends out to prisoners released within the framework of the 2011 prisoner-exchange deal without providing any justification or prior notice," NGO head Abdel Rahman Shadid said at a Tuesday press conference in Gaza City.

In 2011, Gaza-based Palestinian resistance group Hamas carried out an Egypt-brokered prisoner-swap deal with Israel, which saw Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit released by Hamas in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

According to Shadid, his NGO had sought clarification -- unsuccessfully -- about the halt in payments from the PA.

"The officials we spoke to claimed to know nothing about the decision," he said.

Shadid went on to condemn the move, saying the right of Palestinian ex-detainees to receive monthly stipends from the Palestinian government was “inviolable”.

“We will defend this right by any means necessary,” he asserted.

Last week, several Palestinian ex-detainees in the Gaza Strip complained that they had not received their May stipends from the government.

The PA, which runs the Ramallah-based government and is responsible for paying stipends to thousands of ex-detainees, has yet to officially comment on the issue.

In April, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads up the PA, vowed to take “unprecedented measures” aimed at pressuring Hamas -- which has governed Gaza since 2007 -- to relinquish control over the coastal territory.