Labour strikes cripple Gaza hospitals

Workers of public hospitals in the Gaza Strip went on strike Sunday to protest that their demands are not being fulfilled by the Palestinian unity government.

“Medical staff in all public hospitals in the Gaza Strip went on strike to protest not receiving their monthly salaries for over seven months,” spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.

Al-Qodra said that the one-day strike will bring all medical services in Gaza to a complete halt, and warned of its ramifications on the medical services provided to citizens.

He added that the strike is detrimental to many patients, nothing that 200 surgeries scheduled for Sunday in hospitals across the strip were delayed.

The ministry spokesman also urged the unity government to resolve the crises plaguing the health sector in Gaza and to work on solving all problems of its employees.

Gaza employees who were hired by the Hamas movement after it took control of the strip in 2007 have been staging labor strikes with the aim of pressuring the unity government to pay their salaries.

The number of employees hired by Hamas since 2007 are estimated at 40,000, with the sum of their monthly salaries totalling $40 million.

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

The government, however, has yet to assume full responsibility for the Gaza Strip, sorely hindering the disbursement of public-sector salaries in the embattled coastal enclave.