Al-Zahar: the government's decisions seen as a coup against the reconciliation

Mahmoud al-Zahar, senior leader of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, has called the decisions of the Hamdallah government regarding employees a coup against the reconciliation agreement signed between the two parties.

Regarding a week-long visit of ministers from the Ramallah-based unity government, al-Zahar said in a press statement on Tuesday: “The ministers of the unity government came to Gaza to justify the retreat of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from the reconciliation agreements in Cairo and Gaza.”

In April, rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal that led to the formation of a unity government two months later.

The unity government has faced many obstacles, with a major point of tension the fact that Hamas and Fatah have yet to agree on a solution to pay employees of the former Hamas-run government in the Strip who had gone without salaries for months before the unity deal.

Ihab Bseiso, the spokesman of the unity government, said in a news conference that the unity government would guarantee the positions of all employees who worked for Hamas government ministries before the formation of the West Bank-Gaza government.

The unity government will also offer open positions to Palestinian Authority government employees, Bseiso said.