Gaza residents seemed unmoved Thursday by Israel's security cabinet's decision to declare the Gaza Strip a hostile entity and launch economic sanctions against it.
The Decision
Cabinet votes Gaza a 'hostile entity' / Ronny Sofer
Security cabinet approves economic sanctions against Gaza in response to incessant Qassam attacks, ministers in consensus against retaking Gaza. Hamas: This is a declaration of war
According to Abu Muhammad, a taxi driver from Beit Lahiya, the Israeli decision was the talk of the day in town Wednesday. "Everybody was saying Gaza was going to become one big prison and that it would be very difficult here. But they also said that Gaza was already a big prison and that the situation was dire as it is."
Abu Muhammad believes that the decision will not affect Hamas, and that the ordinary people will be the ones to suffer. He claimed it was unlikely Gaza's residents would take to the streets to protest the situation, because Hamas handles every such rally with a firm hand.
The taxi driver was also skeptical about the possibility of a fuel shortage following the anticipated sanctions, saying Israel was making too much money from the petrol sales to give them up. He also sounded unconcerned about threats to cut off Gaza's electricity, since blackouts were already a daily matter in the Strip.
Hoping Abbas will intervene
Another Gazan, Abu Said, told Ynet that he believed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would not allow the situation to deteriorate further. "This is the rais' chance to prove to Gazans he hasn't forgotten them… suffocating people will not push them away from Hamas, on the contrary – the solution is to allow them to live."
Members of the armed Palestinian factions were similarly unworried. Abu Abir, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, which was behind the rocket attack on the Zikim army base last week, said that Israel's decision merely gave a formal seal of approval to the country's ongoing policy to "suffocate" the Palestinian people.
"No decision will weaken the Palestinian resistance and our determination to fight the occupation… the last year and-a-half has proven that we do not yield to pressure or threats," he stated.
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