Egypt is seen as showing little patience for Hamas, telling the organization it would not step in to prevent Israeli counter-attacks on the terror group.
By United With Israel StaffÂ
Protests by Palestinians against the ruling Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip continued into the weekend. The unrest was said to be the result of the worsening economic plight of the residents, as Hamas has apparently been spending much of its resources on finding new ways of attacking Israel and less on improving the lives of its people.
An unverified video showed one of the protestors showing such great despair that he set himself on fire.
Hamas security forces were reported to be suppressing the protests.
The Palestinian Authority (PA), based in Ramallah, called on Egyptian authorities to step in to call Hamas to order and prevent any additional violent confrontations. Hamas overthrew the PA in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
The Egyptians have been working on mediating a cessation of Hamas attacks on Israel as well.
Cairo has been losing patience with Hamas, making clear to the organization, according to reports, that it would not step in to prevent Israeli counter-attacks after rockets were fired from Gaza into the Tel Aviv area and southern Israel on Thursday night and Friday morning.
The internal unrest against Hamas in Gaza lasted for three days, through Saturday.
Though no longer controlling the Gaza Strip since pulling out civilians and the IDF in 2005, Israel has provided humanitarian aid to the Strip and has worked together with the United Nations and Qatar recently to achieve this goal.
According to reports, Qatar has also been called upon to try to bring calm between the Palestinian protestors and the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
Efforts to supply economic aid to Gazans have included a plan to earmark monies towards specific projects instead of blindly providing cash, which would open the door for more finances to go for additional terror activity instead of providing social welfare assistance.
