Palestinian Authority says non-payment of Gaza staff ‘technical’ issue

The Palestinian Authority says it has not paid salaries to employees in the Gaza Strip due to “technical” issues, amid an ongoing split with the territory’s Hamas rulers.

On Monday, PA employees in the West Bank received their monthly salaries but those in Gaza did not, raising fears PA President Mahmoud Abbas was cutting the payments to increase pressure on Hamas. The PA has withheld funds in recent months for precisely that reason.

The Palestinian finance ministry, in a statement carried by the official news agency Wafa, says the delay was due to unspecified “technical” issues unrelated to political disputes.

“We hope that they will be overcome soon,” the statement says, without further details.

Last month, PA president Mahmud Abbas accused Hamas of planning a failed assassination attempt on his prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, during a rare visit to Gaza. The PA has continued paying its tens of thousands of employees in Gaza despite the fact that most have not worked since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

— AFP