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Hamas newspaper: Israel spreading the coronavirus

Coronavirus test in eastern Jerusalem Yehonatan Veltzer/TPS The Hamas newspaper Felesteen on Sunday published an article on the spread of the coronavirus in eastern Jerusalem in which it accused Israel of spreading the virus.

According to the paper, the increase in coronavirus patients in eastern Jerusalem "raises concern about the failure of the Israeli Ministry of Health to conduct tests to diagnose the coronavirus and about the Israeli policy preventing the Palestinian Authority and other relevant parties from intervening in the situation to stop the spread of the virus in the city."

Nasser Jumjum, a member of the Jerusalem Group to Fight the Coronavirus, claimed that "the number of coronavirus patients in East Jerusalem is greater than reported because Israel prevents the conducting of tests for residents."

Nasser Al-Hadmi, who heads the Jerusalem Committee to Fight Judaization, told the newspaper that "East Jerusalem is in a state of deliberate neglect by the Israeli authorities in dealing with the coronavirus."

He added, "The occupation authorities are deliberately working to spread the coronavirus among the residents of East Jerusalem and at the same time restrict the activities of the local organizations fighting the virus."

The allegations against Israel by Hamas follow similar accusations made by Palestinian Authority (PA) officials have also accused Israel of spreading the coronavirus in PA-assigned territories.

Recently, PA cabinet spokesperson Ibrahim Milhem claimed that "Israelis are not taking the prevention measures seriously because they love money and want to keep the production wheel working.”

Milhem added that "the settlements, gas stations and hotels in Israel are greenhouses of the epidemic."

PA officials claim that 79 percent of the PA’s coronavirus patients are Palestinian Arabs who worked in Israel and people who came in contact with those workers, and that Israel is preventing testing for these workers.

Tags: East Jerusalem , Coronavirus