RAMALLAH, West Bank, 3 July 2007 — The Palestinian emergency Cabinet yesterday prepared to pay thousands of civil servants but none allied to Hamas with nearly $120 million transferred by Israel after a 17-month boycott. “On Wednesday, we will start paying salaries to the public sector, civil and military employees,” said Information Minister Riyad Al-Malki, one day after Israel eased an economic boycott and unblocked a portion of owed tax duties.
“We are delighted that the public sector will be paid fully for the first time since February 2006,” Malki said, stressing that employees working for Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip last month, would not be paid. “Whoever decided to reject our existence and ally him or herself with the perpetrators of the coup d’etat in Gaza, they will be exempted from the salaries,” he told reporters.
On Sunday, Israel started to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in customs duties denied to Hamas-led Palestinian governments with a first installment of $118 million paid into West Bank coffers.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian extremist group, the Army of Islam, which claims to be holding the BBC reporter Alan Johnston who was kidnapped in Gaza on March 12, accused the Hamas yesterday of kidnapping one of its leaders after wounding him late Sunday.
In a statement yesterday, the Army of Islam said that Hamas-Executive Force abducted the group’s spokesman Abu Khatab Al-Maqdesi upon orders by Hamas leaders who also ordered to kidnap two field commanders of the group in the past and still holding them.
