PA said preparing to cut welfare stipends to 80,000 families in Gaza

The Palestinian Authority is reportedly continuing its policy of pressuring Hamas through cuts to its financial support for Gaza, this time by planned cuts to welfare subsidies for poor families in the Strip.

According to the Haaretz daily, citing a source “close to [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas,” some 80,000 Gaza families receive several thousand shekels each month in welfare stipends from the PA. About 60,000 are “linked to Hamas,” the source is quoted as saying. “Their financial situation is relatively good and they don’t need the stipend, while the remaining families have additional sources of income.”

The cuts to the “Hamas-linked” families are likely to be permanent, the source indicates, while those for non-Hamas recipients are temporary.