Reuters
GAZA: Hundreds of Palestinian police and security officers blocked all main roads in Gaza City with garbage containers and burning tires on Thursday in a protest over largely unpaid wages. Policemen, firing rifles into the air, turned some garbage bins upside down, causing rubbish to spill out and also broke up concrete to halt traffic on Gaza City s main streets, in a further sign of growing unrest over delayed salaries. Most police were from security services loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been locked in an increasingly bitter confrontation with the Hamas-led government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya over stalled efforts to form a unity coalition. Palestinians hope a unity government will lead to the lifting of Western sanctions imposed when the Hamas Islamist movement took office in March. The embargo has prevented the Palestinian Authority paying full salaries since then. In a small boost for the Authority s 165,000 workers, acting Finance Minister Samir Abu Eisha said partial salaries for September would be paid on Thursday via Abbas office. Workers earning 1,500 shekels ($350) or less would get their full wage, while those earning more would get 1,500 shekels. Our protest is not politically motivated, it is motivated by the hunger and needs of our children, said one policeman, his face smeared with black from the smoke of burning tyres. Haniya or Abbas, we do not care about their problems. We care about our welfare. The West cut direct aid to the Palestinian Authority over Hamas refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace accords with the Jewish state. Hamas accused some political parties of sponsoring the demonstration. Abbas Fatah movement said Hamas was trying to escape its responsibility for ending the financial crisis. Employees in the West Bank city of Ramallah began queuing at automated teller machines as soon as word of Abu Eisha s announcement of partial wage payments spread. In Gaza City, the protests closed almost all main roads. Taxi drivers struggled to find their way through, traveling long distances through alleyways to get to their destinations. The police action comes amid a month-long strike by many other government workers such as teachers over unpaid wages. Some analysts had speculated such pressure might have forced Hamas to meet Abbas demand that the planned unity government recognize interim peace deals with Israel as an attempt to satisfy the West. Hamas, which trounced Fatah in January parliamentary elections, has insisted it will never recognize the Jewish state. Both Hamas and Fatah have traded accusations over who is to blame for the breakdown in unity talks. -Additional reporting by Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah
