Reports that Hamas closes Gaza bakeries

The anti-Hamas Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas is forcing bakeries in Gaza to close - even though they have enough supplies to stay open for a month (autotranslated, cleaned up):

Reliable local sources in the Gaza Strip said that the illegal Hamas militia's supreme political leadership ordered bakery owners in the towns and camps sector prevent the sale of bread for citizens and closing doors, in a continuation in its scheme aimed to deepen the humanitarian crisis it is going through the Gaza Strip in order to achieve narrow partisan gains.\

A number of bakery owners in the sector were quoted as saying, "they had received orders from Hamas militias to close immediately and prevent the sale of bread for citizens, and not presented themselves to brutality and vengeance of those militias in the absence of Anasiallm orders."

The bakery owners said "that the stocks of material sufficient to meet the precise needs of the population of the Gaza Strip of bread for one full month and more", who indicated that they are able to provide this basic commodity for the Palestinian citizen throughout this period of no orders militia Hamas, which prevented them from doing so.

I take much of what PalPress says about Hamas with a grain of salt but very often their claims are corroborated. In addition, since Hamas' takeover of Gaza it is clear that the campaign of intimidation against the press is working and other Palestinian Arab newspapers have become very reluctant to publish anti-Hamas stories.

This story in particular is consistent with how we have seen Hamas act in the past, as well as earlier reports that Hamas has confiscated fuel meant for hospitals for its own use.