The Palestinian Authority (PA) has reduced salaries for its staff in the besieged Gaza Strip by 20 percent, and didn’t compensate employees for not getting their salaries last month, leading to an unprecedented rage.
This angered some 38,000 civil servants in Gaza as they were shocked when they learned of the fresh reduction upon arriving at their banks on payday. Most of the staff had hoped that they would receive paychecks for two months, but instead they just received a reduced monthly income for a single month, without any explanation.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, prompting Israel and Egypt to clamp down on the territory, where 2 million people live under a de facto blockade with the world's highest unemployment rate.
“If they’ve failed to resolve this issue through dialogue, it can’t be resolved by (using) the poor employee,” said Eyad Kalloub, a 40-year-old civil servant, as he queued at his bank.
Back in April last year, Abbas cut his Gaza-based staff’s salaries by 30 percent. He also reduced the number of his staff in the blockaded enclave from 60,000 in 2017, by ordering early retirement for almost a third of the civil servants.
Economists said the PA cuts would shrink the tax revenue collected in Gaza by Hamas - which it uses to pay 40,000 employees it has hired in the enclave since 2007.
More than half of Gazans depend on international aid, and 43.6 percent of workers are unemployed, the highest rate in the world. Basic utilities such as water purification and power have deteriorated.
Israel, which has fought three wars in Gaza in the decade since Hamas took over, bars a range of goods that it says could have military uses from entering the territory, making reconstruction difficult and costly.
Jamal Abu Gholy, 38, a civil servant, came to his Gaza bank hoping to draw on his April salary, only to learn that it had not been deposited. Instead, he owed the bank for an overdraft.
"What shall I do about Ramadan?" he asked, thinking of the festive meals which Muslims break their daily fasting over the course of the month. "I can't just put out cheese and jam. We tell President Abbas: please show mercy towards us."
