(AFP) - Tens of thousands of public sector employees in Gaza went on strike Monday over unpaid salaries, amid a dispute between the two major Palestinian Authority factions.
All government institutions closed their doors for the second time in a month. The union said the strike is necessary as staff have only received 40 percent of their salaries for five months. The Hamas and Fatah factions signed a reconciliation agreement in October that was supposed to see Hamas hand back control of Gaza in December, a decade after seizing the enclave. Under the agreement, the PA was meant to pay the salaries of of civil servants employed by Hamas until a final solution could be found. But they have failed to implement the agreement, with the two sides trading blame over responsibility.