Ramallah: Hamas’ Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza has warned about the proliferation of online adverts offering Gazan youngsters the chance to leave the Strip and work in other parts of the world.
“The tempting fake job vacancies are organised by the Israeli security services targeting the Gaza youth,” said the ministry in a statement.
Hamas’ ministry said that the main aim of the adverts is to recruit Palestinian youngsters as collaborators with Israel. “These are fake ads and it would be extremely dangerous for Gazans to follow them,” said the ministry.
Palestinian youth, on the other hand, said Hamas should not be so obsessed with the Israeli intelligence services and should not underestimate the capabilities of young people to assess the adverts.
“The occupation’s tactics are known to all the Palestinian public, not only to Hamas... We were born under the Israeli occupation and we know the Israeli tactics perfectly well,” said Essam E.B, a 28-year-old unemployed university graduate from Al Maghazi, Gaza in an interview with Gulf News. “Hamas should work on creating job opportunities for the unemployed youth, which are in the tens of thousands. We are not talking politically — the issue should be addressed socially and economically,” he said.
Esam said that living conditions, especially for young people, in Gaza have become intolerable and that young Gazans are ready to take the risk to make a better life. “Many Gazans who followed those ads have ended up in Europe,” he said, adding that those companies do not ask for money initially but pay the recruitment companies from their salaries afterwards.
He said that Hamas had issued warning against the adverts only when the security forces in the Strip noticed the adverts had been attracting a lot of attention. “The ads are worth examining to see if they will work out or if they are merely traps,” he said. “The unemployed remain unemployed and need to explore opportunities. There are none in Gaza but they exist in many other parts of the world.”
