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Civil servants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip have begun receiving financial aid provided by Qatar.
Since the early hours of Friday, hundreds of public-sector employees have gathered outside post offices throughout the strip to receive the long-awaited financial allocations.
In a Friday statement, Gaza's Finance Ministry said civil servants would receive roughly 60 percent of their monthly salaries -- the most they have received in more than two years.
Hamas usually disburses 40 percent of Gaza civil servants’ salaries every two months.
Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on Thursday said he had contacted the Egyptian General Intelligence Service regarding the murder on Wednesday of a Palestinian fisherman off Gaza’s coast.While taking part in a funeral for slain fisherman Mustafa Abu Odeh in the Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, Haniyeh said: "It’s even more lamentable when we know the fisherman was killed by our Egyptian brothers; especially in light of Egypt’s recent mediation efforts."In recent weeks, Egyptian officials have engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Israel, during which they have met with Hamas, Fatah and Israeli officials.Israeli police recommend charging Netanyahu's attorney in submarine caseThe talks are aimed at hammering out a truce between Hamas and Israel and achieving reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah.On Wednesday evening, Gaza’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that Egyptian naval vessels had opened fire on a Palestinian fishing boat, killing the 32-year-old Palestinian fisherman.Gaza’s fishermen's union responded by suspending all fishing activity in the Gaza Strip on Thursday to protest Abu Odeh’s murder. "The fishermen’s union has decided to halt all fishing activity off Gaza’s coast from Thursday morning to Friday morning to protest the murder," union head Nizar Ayyash told Anadolu Agency late Wednesday.Roughly 50,000 Palestinians in blockaded Gaza earn their living through fishing, according to the fishermen’s union.Israel demolishes makeshift classroom in Jordan ValleyUS lawmakers rip Israel bill to seize church land
Hamas contacts Egypt officials over fisherman’s murder
After Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from rival Palestinian faction Fatah in 2007, it appointed roughly 40,000 new government employees to manage the coastal enclave.
The public-sector salary file is one of several issues that served to derail a recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal after the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority refused to pay the salaries of Gaza’s Hamas-appointed civil servants.
In October of last year, the two factions signed a landmark reconciliation agreement in Cairo aimed at ending years of animosity.
The agreement, however, failed to bear fruit due to ongoing differences -- both political and ideological -- between the two movements.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on Tuesday slammed an Israeli decision to disburse part of the tax revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the cash-strapped Gaza Strip. “This decision comes within the framework of the so-called ‘Deal of the Century’, which is based on [Israel’s] racist Nation-State Law, and on the scheme to separate Gaza from the West Bank and Jerusalem,” Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO’s Executive Committee, told Palestine Radio.The “Deal of the Century” refers to a backchannel U.S. Mideast peace plan, details of which have yet to be made public.Female Palestinian inmates face abuse in Israel prisons“Israel and the U.S. administration are expediting the separation [of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank] by all means possible,” Erekat said. The recent Israeli decision, he added, “shows their determination to uncouple the two territories with a view to destroying the Palestinian national project”. Earlier this week, Erekat announced that Israel had threatened to cut funds from taxes collected on behalf of the PA and disburse them to blockaded Gaza. Under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel -- on behalf of the PA -- collects roughly $175 million in monthly taxes on Palestinian imports and exports. As it currently stands, tax revenue represents the main source of the cash-strapped PA's income.Israeli police shoot Palestinian girl in JerusalemIsrael’s new favorite: Oman
Erekat slams Israel decision to funnel PA taxes to Gaza