RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ adviser for provincial affairs, Hikmat Zeid, declared in a June 13 circular that permits for marches or rallies would not be granted for the rest of Ramadan. "Once [the holidays] are over, the laws enforced shall be applied again.” The move came in response to a demonstration planned for that evening in Ramallah's city center to demand that the Palestinian Authority lift sanctions on the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian police have been instructed to prevent any protest from taking place in the streets and public squares, leaving the demonstration vulnerable to repression and deprived of security. A source within the organizing Movement to Lift Sanctions on Gaza who asked not to be named told Al-Monitor that the demonstration will take place as scheduled. He added, “The PA issued the circular in an attempt to scare us and prevent the protest from occurring, following Fatah’s calls for a counter-demonstration at the same time in the same place to clash with us and disturb ours, which came after the success of the previous demonstration held three days ago.”

Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi posted on Facebook June 12 that “suspicious persons” were behind the June 10 Ramallah protests against the Palestinian Authority's (PA) sanctions on Gaza. In the post, he questioned the motivations behind the demonstrations, speculating that the timing may be linked to the upcoming US-brokered deal and “attempts to mobilize the public under the pretext of [lifting] sanctions on Gaza."

More than 2,000 people rallied June 10 in Ramallah to protest the PA's sanctions on the Gaza Strip. The protest, the city's largest in years, started in the center of Ramallah with protesters voicing anger at the PA’s ongoing sanctions on their fellow Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and demanding that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lift them at once.