Last update - 00:00 08/08/2007
Gaza doctors protest against Hamas dismissal of hospital directors
By Reuters
Dozens of Palestinian doctors and nurses briefly stopped work in Gaza's main hospital on Wednesday to protest against the dismissal of two Fatah-affiliated managers by the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the territory.
Fatah, which lost control of the Gaza Strip to the militant Hamas in June, had appointed Dr. Hazzaa Abed to head Shifa Hospital. Hamas named its own hospital chief, who ordered Abed out.
Goma Assaqa, who is also affiliated with Fatah and was the hospital's public relations director, was fired by Hamas as well.
Since Hamas took over in Gaza, many of its institutions - including the courts - have been in a state of confusion, with directors appointed separately by the Islamic group and Fatah insisting they are in charge.
At least 70 doctors and nurses suspended services for two hours at Shifa Hospital, which serves Gaza's population of 1.5 million.
"We would rather die than implement the unjust decisions of the dismissed government," read one banner pasted on the wall by the protesters, referring to the Hamas administration sacked by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
Hamas has accused Abbas' West Bank-based government of "inciting followers to carry out a civil disobedience in Gaza" and accused the striking medical staff of endangering patients.
Assaqa said the dismissals at Shifa Hospital were politically motivated. A spokesman for the Ministry of Health in Gaza said they came in response to "financial, administrative and moral corruption" at the facility.
At the hospital, diabetic patient Abu Ahmed witnessed the butting of heads between the striking doctors and members of the Hamas-led Executive Force, ans said, "do Fatah and Hamas really care about us? God knows."