A member of the politburo of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has accused the recently-formed Palestinian unity government of violating the terms of an April reconciliation agreement between his group and rival faction Fatah.
“The government acted in error regarding those who fall under its mandate,” said Hamas’ Khalil al-Hayeh.
“We never expected ordinary people’s livelihoods to be the first stumbling block on the road towards [Palestinian national] reconciliation,” al-Hayeh said at a Monday press conference in Gaza City.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which rules the occupied West Bank, signed a reconciliation deal in late April in hopes of ending years of division.
The deal called for the formation of unity government of technocrats to run Palestinian affairs in Gaza and the West Bank until legislative polls are held within six months.
Unveiled last week, the new government faced its first challenge when paying public-sector salaries in both territories late last month, as the government’s empty coffers kept it from dispersing the salaries of civil servants that had been be employed by Hamas in the West Bank.
Last week, unpaid civil servants – citing alleged discrimination – prevented their Fatah-employed colleagues from receiving their salaries from banks in Ramallah and in other West Bank cities.
Al-Hayeh said Monday that the reconciliation agreement had called for a national unity government to represent all Palestinians and not just West Bank residents.
“All Palestinians are now under the mandate of the government,” al-Hayeh asserted, going on to point out that civil servants in Gaza had not received their salaries for the last eight months.
Since 2006, the Gaza Strip has groaned under an all-out Israeli blockade that has deprived the coastal enclave’s roughly 1.8 million inhabitants of their most basic needs and forced thousands of workers – especially those in the construction sector – into unemployment.
MEMO Photographer: Mohammed Asad