Head of Hamas’ Press Office Fails to Grasp Concept of Quarantine

Prediction: this guy is going to end up dead, supposedly in a freak accident incurred while cleaning his gun.

Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas-controlled Government Press Office, has been suspended for allowing journalists to enter a quarantine center for Palestinians diagnosed with coronavirus.

Marouf, who reportedly authorized the entry of the journalists into the quarantine center in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, was suspended pending an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the issue.

A special commission of inquiry has been set up to look into the issue, the Hamas-affiliated newspaper, Al-Resalah, reported. The commission will recommend that those who violated the regulations of the Health Ministry be held accountable, it said.

Marouf confirmed that he has been suspended from his job. “My moral and understanding of government work oblige me to respect a decision to suspend my work until the investigation ends, even if it seems to me to be surprising and incomprehensible,” he said. “I’m fully prepared assume responsibility if it’s proven that I had failed in my job.”

The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry said a journalist and cameraman who entered the quarantine center have been placed under quarantine for fear they may have been infected with coronavirus.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said they were surprised to see a television crew filming inside the quarantine center and endangering their lives and those of others. The Palestinians called the incident a “scandal” and demanded that those who authorized the filming inside the center be punished.