Hamas unable to pay salaries to its employees

GAZA - The Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip is unable to pay full salaries to its 32,000 employees, a senior official in Hamas-run finance ministry said Monday.

“The government will pay a full salary by the end of the week only to those whose monthly salary is less than 1,500 shekels (around $400),” Ismail Mahfouz, the ministry’s director-general, said in a statement.

He added that employees whose salary is 4,000 shekels (around $1072) “will also get paid the minimum amount of the salary, which is 1,500 shekels.”

“The government will also pay half of last month’s salary to the employees who were not able to get their salaries fully paid due to some technical arrangements that government is carrying out,” said Mahfouz.

The Islamist Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after routing security forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party. Abbas dismissed the Hamas government in response, but it rejected his decree and continued administering the salient.

The Hamas takeover also led Israel to tighten its blockade, in place since Hamas-led militants snatched an Israeli soldier during a July 23 cross-border raid. As a result, tough restrictions have been imposed on the Gaza banking system, especially on money transfers.

Jamal Nasser, the head of the finance committee in the Hamas-dominated parliament, has denied that the Hamas administration suffered from a financial crisis, but did admit to a problem regarding allowing money into the Strip.

“Due to the unfair siege, which has been imposed on the Gaza Strip for more than three years, and due to the restrictions imposed on Gaza banks, the government was unable to get its money from abroad,” he said.