Gaza civil servants receive portions of delayed salaries

Thousands of civil servants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday began receiving portions of their overdue salaries, payment of which had been delayed for over four months since the formation of a Palestinian unity government.

Public sector workers flocked to post offices in the Gaza Strip since early Wednesday morning to receive $1,200 each, disbursed by the Ramallah-based unity government from funds supplied by Qatar.

"We hope to be legally registered with the [unity] government so our salaries won't be delayed again," Iyad Zeyara, 39, told Anadolu Agency.

"We want the discrimination between government employees to stop," Ahmed al-Khodari, 28, said.

A day earlier, Palestinian Social Affairs Minister Shawki al-Eissa had said Gaza's civil servants would begin receiving back salaries by mail over three days starting Wednesday.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah told a press conference in Ramallah on Tuesday that 24,000 public employees in the Gaza Strip would each receive $1,200.

The funds, he said, had been sent by mail following recent pledges by Qatar to provide Ramallah with a $30-million grant to cover the salary shortfalls.

Some 45,000 civil servants employed by the Hamas movement – which has governed the strip since 2007 – stopped receiving salaries soon after the formation this summer of a Palestinian national unity government.

The new government was unveiled in line with an April reconciliation agreement between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah.

The new government, however, has yet to assume political control of the Gaza Strip, impeding payment of Gaza's civil servants.

Both factions, meanwhile, continue to accuse each other of attempting to sabotage the reconciliation deal.