For 2nd month, civil servants in Gaza face salary cuts

By Nour Abu Aisha

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - The Ramallah-based Palestinian government has failed to pay the full salaries of its employees in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for the second consecutive month.

After receiving their April paychecks on Wednesday, government employees in Gaza were dismayed to find that at least 30 percent of their salaries had been cut.

It was not the first time. Gaza-based civil servants also suffered pay cuts last month, with at least 30 percent of their March salaries being held back by the government.

Ola Abdel-Aal, a 36-year-old housewife in Gaza City, lamented that her husband’s salary -- after the pay cut -- was no longer sufficient to meet their family’s needs.

"For the second month in a row, my husband’s paycheck was cut by some 1,100 shekels [roughly 300 dollars],” the mother of four told Anadolu Agency.

“The remainder is barely enough to provide the necessities of life for us and our children," she said.

Aamer, another government employee in Gaza, told a similar story, saying that -- this time around -- a whopping 50 percent of his salary appeared to have been cut.

"These salary cuts increase our suffering and make it very difficult to meet our most basic needs," Aamer, who declined to give his last name for fear of reprisal, told Anadolu Agency.

Last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas -- whose Palestinian Authority (PA) runs the Ramallah government -- vowed to take "unprecedented steps” vis-à-vis the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

While Abbas did not elaborate further, some observers believe that he plans to sever Ramallah's relations with Gaza in the event that Hamas -- which has governed the strip since 2007 -- refuses to relinquish authority over the coastal territory.

In 2014, Hamas and rival Palestinian movement Fatah -- the latter of which leads the PA -- agreed in principle to establish a unity government.

The so-called “unity government” that was set up in Ramallah, however, has so far failed to assume a governing role in Gaza due to outstanding differences between the two ideologically-opposed movements.