GAZA CITY: Hamas-appointed civil servants in the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip began receiving their July salaries yesterday through a grant from Qatar, said an official.
Youssef Al Kayali, Undersecretary of the Strip’s Hamas-run Finance Ministry, said that the allocation process had begun under UN supervision.
He added, however, that a “large number” of Hamas-appointed civil servants had not been included on the list of grant beneficiaries.
According to the Palestinian media, some 2,800 employees were not included on the list because the Israeli authorities or, according to reports, the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority had deemed them “active members of Hamas”.
At a press conference shortly before the grant dispersal, Mohamed Al Emadi, Head of Qatar’s National Committee for Reconstruction of Gaza, said the $31m Qatari grant would be paid out “one time only”.
He said the funds to be dispersed through the UN would not go towards paying salaries owed to members of Gaza’s Hamas-run security forces.
The Hamas-run government continues to face a dire financial crisis that has prevented it from regularly paying the salaries of many public employees.
Anatolia
