GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip ordered the shutdown Monday of private clinics run by doctors loyal to the West Bank-based Fatah government, a new blow to a medical system already crippled by the Palestinian power struggle.
Most doctors at Gaza's public hospitals are paid by Fatah and loyal to its West Bank administration. They cut their daytime hospital schedule to three hours a day this month on Fatah's orders to protest Hamas' arrest of a prominent Fatah-linked physician.
The doctors have been receiving patients outside their newly shortened hours in expensive private clinics, which Hamas said it was closing immediately. Doctors who do not comply will be fired from their hospital jobs, and clinics will be scrutinized to ensure they are properly registered and licensed, Hamas officials said.
Hospital visits are covered by monthly health insurance, which costs about $12 to $15. Private visits cost $7 to $17 each — a sizable sum in Gaza, where 70 percent of the territory's 1.4 million people live on less than $500 a month, according to a recent survey.
"We are not going to play with the health sector," said Khaled Radi, Hamas' spokesman on health issues.
A physician who identified himself only as Dr. Nabil, for fear of Hamas retribution, said doctors would resist the shutdown order. "We will not allow them to close the clinics down," he said.
Emergency rooms still were operating around the clock, officials said.
The independent Al Mezan Center for Human Rights urged that the health sector be removed from any political influence and called on doctors to end their work slowdown.
"Hamas is not interested in the quality of medical service," Fatah Information Minister Riad al-Malki said in the West Bank. "We stand behind all these doctors and are ready to provide support."
Patients complained they were caught in the middle of the struggle between the government of President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in June after routing Fatah forces. Abbas dissolved his coalition with Hamas and formed the government now in the West Bank.
Breast cancer patient Salma Taleb recounted standing in line for 50 minutes at the Shifa Hospital pharmacy in Gaza City to buy critically needed medications, only to be told to come back the next day because she reached the counter five minutes after the 11 a.m. closing time. The next day she arrived late and was turned away again — prompting her to complain to the Health Ministry.
"Workers at the health sector are making us victims of a political game between Gaza and Ramallah," the 55-year-old Taleb said.
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