Hamas: PM is personally to blame for the closure of Gaza's crossings

Responding to remarks made earlier in the day, Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said on Tuesday that Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah “is personally to blame for the closure of Gaza’s crossings”, Anadolu news agency reported.

Hamdallah had stated earlier that the Gaza crossings still needed to be handed over to the national unity government, but that Hamas has refused to do so.

The news agency quoted Hamas’s Spokesperson Sami abu-Zuhri as saying: “Hamdallah’s remarks about handing the crossings over to the reconciliation government are deplorable and unjustified.”

Abu-Zuhri accused the Palestinian government of violating the reconciliation agreement, saying that: “There was an agreement reached between Deputy Prime Minister Ziad abu-Amer and the security services about the management of the crossings.”

Payment for Gaza employees

Meanwhile, Hamdallah said on Tuesday that about 24,000 civil servants in the Gaza Strip would soon receive a payment of $1,200 as part of their unpaid salaries.

Speaking at a press conference in Ramallah, he said: “A financial payment to the employees in Gaza has arrived through the government post.”

At the same press conference, Minister of Social Welfare Shawqi Al-Ayasa said that the employees would start receiving their payments from the post office’s bank on Wednesday.

The PM stated that Qatar had paid $30 million to cover the Gaza employees and this payment was secured in cooperation with a number of Arab and foreign countries, as well as the UN.

However, regarding the pledged reconstruction aid for rebuilding the Gaza Strip, Hamdallah said that, so far, no money has reached the Palestinians.

He added that his government has asked for an urgent meeting with representatives from Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in order to discuss arranging an urgent payment plan for the pledges made at the donor conference earlier this month in Cairo.