PA Prime Minister: Only additions to Gaza workers salary was cut, financial crisis due to 70% cut in foreign aid
Headline: “‛$17 billion were transferred over the last 10 years in order to provide for the needs of the Gaza Strip’ – Hamdallah: Some of the wage additions were cut in the salaries of the Gaza employees; Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself”
“[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: ‘The [PA] government has decided to take austerity measures on the expenses since last year [2016] in the West Bank. The first sector in which they began was the security sector, whose expenses were reduced by 25%. In addition, the budgets of many sectors were reduced due to the 70% drop in foreign aid. We are suffering from a large financial crisis.’ He added: ‘The base salaries of the [public] employees in the Gaza Strip were not harmed, but rather some of the wage additions were cut, while some of them were left intact. This is so that we will be able to manage the financial crisis from which we are suffering.’ Hamdallah continued: ‘We demand that Hamas give the Gaza Strip to the legal leadership (i.e., Fatah), as Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself, while we are fulfilling all of our obligations towards the members of our people in the Gaza Strip. In the last 10 years approximately $17 billion have been transferred from the [PA] coffers to the Gaza Strip, and we emphasize that the Palestinian leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas insists that there will be no [separate] state in Gaza, and there will be no state without Gaza.’”
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“[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: ‘The [PA] government has decided to take austerity measures on the expenses since last year [2016] in the West Bank. The first sector in which they began was the security sector, whose expenses were reduced by 25%. In addition, the budgets of many sectors were reduced due to the 70% drop in foreign aid. We are suffering from a large financial crisis.’ He added: ‘The base salaries of the [public] employees in the Gaza Strip were not harmed, but rather some of the wage additions were cut, while some of them were left intact. This is so that we will be able to manage the financial crisis from which we are suffering.’ Hamdallah continued: ‘We demand that Hamas give the Gaza Strip to the legal leadership (i.e., Fatah), as Hamas is taking all of the revenue and spending it only on itself, while we are fulfilling all of our obligations towards the members of our people in the Gaza Strip. In the last 10 years approximately $17 billion have been transferred from the [PA] coffers to the Gaza Strip, and we emphasize that the Palestinian leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas insists that there will be no [separate] state in Gaza, and there will be no state without Gaza.’”
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