PA says non-payment of its Gaza staff a ‘technical’ issue

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

On Monday PA employees in the West Bank received their monthly salaries but those in Gaza did not, raising fears President Mahmoud Abbas was cutting the payments to increase pressure on Hamas.

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

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

Relations between the West Bank-based PA and Hamas are at rock bottom.

Last month, 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, in a near civil war with Fatah, Abbas’s party which dominates the Palestinian Authority.

Israel has since maintained a blockade on the coastal enclave, to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry, while Gaza’s border with Egypt is also largely closed.

Analysts say cutting PA salaries to employees in Gaza would increase discontent, putting further pressure on Hamas.

Multiple reconciliation attempts between Hamas and Fatah have failed, most recently after an Egyptian-brokered deal signed in October.