[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinians in the Gaza strip are facing a monetary crisis of immense proportions as salaries have been frozen, humanitarian aid deleted and welfare checks cancelled in the face of a banking and liquidity crisis brought on by Israel's blockade.
Although Israel allowed a $12 million transfer into the impoverished Gaza strip earlier this week, cash transfers have been tightly restricted since Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007 and especially since the war that ended this past January, the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday.
After Hamas took control of Gaza Israel began restricting flow of cash transfers to irregular transfers of 50-100 million shekels ($12 million),
The $12 million cash infusion will go towards paying the salaries of 65,000 Palestinian Authority staff in Ramallah in the West Bank, who have frequently gone without salaries since the lack of cash has hampered basic financial transactions. |