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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: May 31, 2006 |
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Palestinian public workers are to receive partial salaries for the first time in three months, the Hamas-led government said, alleviating financial and personal crises, at least for now.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas made the surprise announcement on Tuesday, promising some money for his 165,000 workers, many of whom have dipped into their savings to keep their heads above water.
Salaries have not been paid since a cutoff of Western aid and Israeli tax transfers after the militant Islamic movement took over the Palestinian government.
Haniyeh said he hoped the workers would get checks "in the next few days" for $333, equal to a full month's salary for about a quarter of the workers and a partial payment for the rest.
The Palestinian government is the largest employer in the West Bank and Gaza. Reflecting the desperate situation, a senior Hamas official tried to smuggle a large amount of cash into Gaza earlier this month, but the money was confiscated.
Ahmed Youssef, a Haniyeh aide, said that money ended up in the coffers of the Finance Ministry. Together with local donations and tax collections, he said, there was enough money to pay some salaries.
The lack of foreign aid has also led to severe shortages of medicines in Palestinian hospitals and other hardships.
Haniyeh called on Israel and Europe to release funding. Israel, the U.S. and European Union consider Hamas a terror group and refuse to give it money. Haniyeh called that an "unjust siege" on his people.
The West demands that Hamas recognize Israel, accept previous peace accords and renounce violence. Hamas has refused. Its ideology does not have a place for a Jewish state in an Islamic Middle East, and over the past decade it has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his Cabinet on Tuesday that he will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas soon, according to participants, but did not want to raise expectations because "after such meetings, the Palestinians always fail to meet their obligations."
Abbas, a moderate, has been trying to force Hamas into a more centrist position, setting a 10-day limit on a dialogue before calling a referendum on a document that implicitly recognizes Israel.
The first two days of the dialogue have produced no agreement. On Tuesday, the parties decided to move the talks from the West Bank city of Ramallah to Gaza when Abbas returns from a trip on Friday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, an adviser to Abbas, said administrative and legal arrangements are being made to hold the referendum if the talks fail.
Hamas rejected Abbas' ultimatum.
"Time should not be a sword directed at the participants," Haniyeh said Tuesday. "Enough time should be given to reach the expected results from this dialogue." The talks are to continue on Wednesday.
Also Tuesday, masked Palestinian gunmen killed a man they suspected of spying for Israel. Jafal Abu Tzrur, 24, was shot dead on a main street by members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, who suspected he informed on three of militants killed during an Israeli raid on the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
The group also denounced Abu Tzrur's girlfriend, a mother of four who was married to one of the Al Aqsa men slain by Israel, and she was killed by male relatives on grounds that she shamed her clan. |
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