Abbas threatens to slowly cut funding to Gaza Strip over row with Hamas

‘Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to gradually cut financial support to the impoverished Gaza Strip “by 100 percent” until the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas agrees to reconcile with his ruling Fatah Party.
The Palestinian leader made the remarks in a meeting with the Israeli politician Zehava Gal-On, the chairperson of the Israeli left-wing Meretz political party, in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Monday.
“We transfer $1.5 billion a year [to Hamas in Gaza],” Abbas further said, according to a statement released by his office later in the day. He added that he had already slashed 25 percent of that amount.
The Fatah, chaired by Abbas, and Hamas are at loggerheads over a number of issues, which ultimately led to a split in the Palestinian Authority in 2007. A year earlier, Hamas had won parliamentary elections and since June 2007 it has been ruling over the Gaza Strip. During the past decade the movement has refused to reconcile with the Fatah and the row between the two still persists.’
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