HAMAS ORDERS PRIVATE GAZA HEALTH CLINICS SHUT

Hamas orders private Gaza clinics shut down (Jerusalem Post)
Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers ordered striking doctors to shut down their private clinics on Monday, in a challenge to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that threatened to deepen hardship in the long-suffering territory.

The faceoff has largely paralyzed Gaza's medical system, putting it at the mercy of the rivalry between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement. Hamas seized control of Gaza in June after routing Fatah forces, while Abbas formed a new government in the West Bank.

Hospital doctors across Gaza launched a work slowdown earlier this month to protest the arrest of a prominent physician allied with Fatah. On orders from Abbas' West Bank government, which pays their salaries, most curtailed their daytime hospital schedule to three hours a day, receiving patients afterward in expensive private clinics.

Hamas struck back Monday by ordering the immediate shutdown of the clinics. Doctors who do not comply will be fired, and clinics will also be scrutinized to ensure they are properly registered and licensed, Hamas officials said.