GAZA CITY, 4 July 2007 — Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister in the dissolved Hamas government, yesterday called for public protests against President Mahmoud Abbas’ emergency government over its refusal to pay salaries to workers hired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Press ahead with your campaign until the wrongdoing is corrected,” Haniyeh told hundreds of public sector employees outside his Gaza office.
Abbas dismissed Haniyeh’s government and appointed an emergency administration under his own control in the occupied West Bank after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip by force on June 14.
Fayyad will be able to pay full salaries for the first time because Israel, the United States and other major Western powers ended their crippling economic embargo of the Palestinian Authority after Abbas sacked Haniyeh’s government last month.
In another development, Israel has resumed talks with the Palestinian Authority on security cooperation, an Israeli official said yesterday about a move designed to bolster Abbas after Hamas’ Gaza takeover.
