![Protest outside UNRWA after employees were to be forced in to retirement [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/UNRWA-agrees-temporary-deal-to-end-Gaza-workers%E2%80%99-protestsc6.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Palestinian Authority (PA) Deputy Minister of Finance Farid Ghannam yesterday revealed that 27,238 employees had been forced to take early retirement since 2017, the Anadolu Agency reported.
Ghannam added that 18,000 of the 62,000 military employees and 9,238 civil employees in the West Bank and Gaza were sacked.
There are currently 133,200 PA employees, including 33,800 in the besieged Gaza Strip and 99,400 in the occupied West Bank, Ghannam said.
The International Monetary Funds has repeatedly called for the PA to minimise its spending by cutting its outgoing on salary payments.
The PA official said the government’s spenditure on salaries reduced by 16 per cent thanks to the policy of forcing people to accept early retirement.
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