DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - ISRAEL/HOLY LAND: SALARIES PAID IN FULL BY HAMAS

Hamas pays full ‘salaries’ to fighters despite blockade; Islamists fail to convene parliament to counter Abbas

GAZA (Agencies): Hamas said it paid its security forces in the Gaza Strip their full salaries on Sunday despite an Israeli and Western boycott. “We were paid a full salary for the first time. Long live Hamas!” an officer in Hamas’s 6,000-men Executive Force told Reuters. He declined to give his name. Israel tightened its economic grip on the Gaza Strip after the Islamist group’s violent takeover of the territory on June 14, closing the main crossings to all but humanitarian supplies. At the same time, Israel reopened the financial taps to the Western-backed emergency government that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas established in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s resumption of tax revenue transfers to the emergency government earlier this month enabled Salam Fayyad, whom Abbas appointed prime minister, to pay Palestinian Authority workers their first full wages in 17 months.

Fayyad excluded from his payroll some 19,000 workers who report to Hamas, including the Executive Force. Hamas did not say on Sunday where it obtained the money to pay its Executive Force, which played a central role in the factional fighting that culminated in the seizure of Gaza.

Hamas officials said they received their money through banks. Israel has sought to deny Hamas access to banks and a senior Israeli official said: “We’re looking into it.”

Meanwhile, Hamas Islamists failed in a bid on Sunday to convene the Palestinian parliament to challenge the legality of the government just installed by President Mahmoud Abbas to replace a Hamas-led administration. The session was not able to start because a quorum could not be assembled. Hamas lawmakers said just 28 of 132 legislators turned up for the session, held jointly in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Hamas needed at least 67 for a quorum. Fatah boycotted the session, calling it illegal. In lieu of the session, Hamas lawmakers held an informal “consultative” meeting over the steps taken by Abbas. Acting speaker Ahmed Bahar, a Hamas leader in Gaza, used his mobile phone to contact lawmakers in the West Bank city of Ramallah.



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1) Hamas pays full ‘salaries’ to fighters despite blockade; Islamists fail to convene parliament to counter Abbas