Hamas detains man who criticized calls to protest Israel at border

GAZA CITY — Gaza’s Hamas rulers have detained a young man who criticized the Islamic militant group’s call for protests at the border that have set off deadly clashes with Israeli troops.

Mohammed al-Taluli’s family said Monday the 25-year-old was detained by Hamas after posting a video on YouTube in which he accused the group of “pushing the youths to death” to stay in power.

For weeks, Palestinians have rallied at the Gaza fence against living conditions in the impoverished coastal territory.

Hamas, considered a terror group by Israel and many others, has encouraged the protests.

Youths have thrown rocks at Israeli soldiers, and two Palestinians have been killed in the clashes.

Al-Taluli and his friends have been detained by Hamas several times since organizing protests in January against power cuts.

The Palestinian Authority has been paying 40 million shekels ($11.3 million) a month for 125 megawatts, but recently said it was now only prepared to pay for 20-25 million shekels ($7 million) a month for electricity to Gaza.

The hours of electricity supply in Gaza will now likely be reduced from six hours per day to between two and four hours a day.

Israel has been concerned that further cutting electricity would further destabilize Gaza.

However, the security cabinet on Sunday accepted the recommendation of the Israeli military to cut the supply at the request of PA President Mahmoud Abbas whose confrontation with Hamas has escalated in recent months.

The PA and Hamas have been engaged in a power struggle for some time. Abbas, whose government pays Israel for the electricity, has stepped up financial pressure on Hamas in recent weeks by withholding funds to loosen the Islamists’ grip on power.

Gaza residents have adapted to worsening hardships with ingenuity and stoicism.

In some apartment buildings, residents have pooled resources to buy communal generators. Most Gazans buy food daily because they can no longer use refrigerators. Formerly routine activities such as showering or running a washing machine are done at odd hours, when power is on.

Gaza hasn’t had full-time electricity in more than a decade, largely because of the international isolation of Hamas, an Islamist terror group that seeks to destroy Israel. Israel and Egypt, which border the coastal strip, imposed a blockade on the territory after Hamas’s takeover in 2007, to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry. Since 2008, Israel and Hamas have fought three cross-border wars.

Dov Lieber and Jacob Magid contributed to this report