![Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seen during his meeting with Palestinian senior leaders at the Presidency building in Ramallah, West Bank on December 18, 2017 [Issam Rimawi / Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/20171218_2_27588233_28987054.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Along with the Palestinian public employees in Gaza, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cut the salaries of the Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip held inside Israeli jails, Quds Press reported on Friday.
Sources told Quds Press that they had contacted the head of the PLO’s Committee of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe, noting that he claimed this was a result of a “technical error” that would be amended soon.
The sources also reported that senior Fatah leader, Marwan al-Barghouti, imprisoned in Israeli prisons since 2002, was angry with Abbas’s decision to cut the salaries of Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, noting that it “undermines one of the main principles of the Palestinian cause.”
According to the sources, the decision to cut the salaries came two days after Al-Barghouti called upon Abbas to refrain from imposing punitive measures on Gaza.
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The sources also said that the prisoners are planning to go on hunger strike if Abbas did not pay their salaries.
Abbas’ measures against the prisoners coincided with the commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and with the strike of the administrative prisoners which started 54 days ago.
Abbas has persisted in enforcing punitive measures against Gaza to regain control of the coastal enclave from Hamas, which won the last general Palestinian elections in 2006.
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