Gaza: Some 40,000 public servants hired by Hamas went on strike in Gaza on Thursday in a pay dispute that could test the resilience of the new Palestinian government, formed just weeks ago under the Islamist group’s unity pact with President Mahmoud Abbas. All government offices in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip were closed as a result of the one-day strike, but hospital emergency rooms remained open and police continued to patrol the streets.
The new government, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, infuriated public workers on Hamas’s payroll by saying it would vet them before paying out salaries - a process that could take months.
The wage dispute has shown the fragility of the reconciliation agreement signed in April under which a government of technocrats was formed with the task of holding a national ballot within six months.
Earlier this month, Gaza’s public sector union suspended protests that lasted nearly a week, saying it would resume its action if its members were not promptly paid.
Hamas hired the employees after seizing the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to the Western-backed Abbas in 2007, a year after winning a Palestinian election.
“This strike is a first step and an initial warning to the unity government,” said Mohammed Seyam, the chairman of the Hamas-hired workers’ union in the Gaza Strip.
“We want to be recognised as employees of the Palestinian Authority and merged into the main salary list. If there was no response from the unity government we will escalate our protests,” he told Reuters.
