Palestinian doctors in West Bank launch partial strike over delayed salary payments

The Palestinian Doctors Association announces a partial strike beginning today in government hospitals and public medical institutions across areas governed by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, amid an ongoing crisis over salary payments to public sector employees, including doctors.

The crisis stems from the fact that, for the past year, Israel has not transferred Palestinian tax revenues to the PA, which it agreed to do under the 1990s Oslo Accords. The sums amount to hundreds of millions of shekels per month and constitute around 60% of the Palestinian Authority’s revenues.

Last month, the Palestinian Finance Ministry announced that it would pay all public employees, including senior officials, a monthly salary of NIS 2,000.

In a statement, the doctors’ group said the strike includes “the closure of health centers and clinics, emergency-only operations at government hospitals — with the exception of treatment for kidney patients, blood diseases, and maternity cases — as well as a strike at Health Ministry buildings in Ramallah and Nablus.”

The doctors also wrote in their statement that they “hold the government fully responsible for the dangerous deterioration threatening patients and medical services.”