Deportation orders will not proceed, Haniyeh

Ma'an
The de facto government in Gaza will erect a tent at the Erez crossing to receive Palestinians deported to Gaza under the new Israeli military orders, Hamas government Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday.

The deportees will not be permitted to enter Gaza, but will rather be housed at the tent while international rights groups insist that they be permitted to travel to the West Bank, where their families are, the de facto prime minister explained.

"The regulation simply will not be allowed to stand," he explained, insisting that the the de facto government will force Israel to reverse the strategy by making its implementation impossible.

Refusing Palestinians entry to Gaza is not an effort to deny Palestinians the right to live anywhere they choose in the nation, Haniyeh explained, but rather an insistence that Palestinians be allowed to live where they choose.

On 13 April, two new Israeli military orders went into effect, expanding the definition of an "infiltrator" to include any person residing in the West Bank without Israeli permission. Rights organizations and governments from around the world have condemned the move.

Already, at least two Palestinians have been moved to Gaza, though it is not clear if the orders were used to expel them. One Tulkarem native was released from prison on Wednesday and dropped off at the Erez crossing; he remains stranded at the crossing, and will likely remain in the Hamas-organized tent pending intervention by rights groups.

A second Palestinian man, born in Gaza but residing with his wife and children in the Palestinian community of Yaffa, in Tel Aviv, was detained from a hospital and transported to Gaza. The decision, however, was later reversed for unknown reasons, and he was permitted to travel back to his family.  Full story