On Tuesday, the Press House-Palestine organized a dialogue meeting with the General Directorate of Traffic Police in Gaza City, to discuss the traffic accidents and its repercussions and the development methods of provided services for drivers and citizens and the needed traffic awareness.
The meeting was attended by the Traffic Police Director General Ihab Muhanna, the Head of Licensing Sector Hassan Okashah, and the Police Spokesperson, Ayman Al-Batniji, and a number of competent officials, in addition to a number of female and male journalists and media college’s students.
The chairman of the Press House, Mr. Bilal Jadallah, thanked the attendees for their coming, stressing the importance of these meetings which enhances the culture of debate and discussion and raises the issues which needs answers from competent officials.
The traffic police Director, General Ihab Muhanna, pointed out that traffic situation in Gaza have witnessed cases marked by serious traffic violations that require sanctions, he continued that they are mainly working on issuing three traffic violations: driving without a license, violations of traffic signs, and violations of entry into the opposite direction.
In the first half of 2019, the traffic police director in Gaza monitored 489 unlicensed driving violations and 602 traffic accidents, resulting in 32 deaths.
In this regard, the head of licensing sector, Hassan Okashah, declared during the meeting about the system of licensing and tax payments which will be through one channel only instead of going to more than one place to collect the taxes.
Mr. Muhanna spoke about the shortage of radars in some of the main streets and the difficulty of monitoring the violators drivers quickly, where some streets don’t have the radar system, especially in highways due to the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
The meeting ends with several recommendations, the most important of which is raising the awareness of citizens and drivers about the traffic culture, which will reduce traffic accidents through the development of an awareness curriculum for primary school levels.
He called on the participants to limit the phenomenon of car rental without ensuring that drivers have driving license, stressing the need to take responsibility for parents for preventing their children from driving before obtaining the necessary licenses.
It was also agreed to provide special permits by the police director in Gaza to allow using the blacked-out windows for journalists' cars.
While the journalists demanded a dialogue meeting to be held between the Municipality of Gaza and members of the Ministry of Transport and Communications to talk about traffic law No. 5 for the year 2000, to regulate traffic violations and to carry out field visits to the traffic police stations to see the progress of the work closely.
