Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasReuters

The Palestinian Authority (PA) said on Tuesday it had not paid salaries to employees in Gaza due to "technical" issues, amid an ongoing split with Gaza’s Hamas rulers, AFP reported.

On Monday, PA employees in the PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria received their monthly salaries but those in Gaza did not.

The PA bureau in charge of financial affairs, in a statement carried by the official news agency Wafa, said the delay was due to unspecified "technical" issues unrelated to political disputes.

"We hope that they will be overcome soon," the statement said, without further details.

The delay comes amid continued tense relations between PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction and Hamas.

The two groups, which have been feuding ever since, signed a reconciliation agreement in October, as part of which Hamas was to transfer power in Gaza by December 1. That deadline was initially put back by 10 days and then appeared to have been cancelled altogether after it reportedly hit “obstacles”.

Following the collapse of the agreement, Hamas several weeks ago implemented new checks on Palestinian Arabs seeking to leave Gaza.

Last month, Abbas accused Hamas of planning a failed assassination attempt on PA cabinet leader Rami Hamdallah, who was on a rare visit to Gaza.

Abbas also announced plans to sanction Hamas over the assassination attempt.

The PA has continued paying its tens of thousands of employees in Gaza despite the fact that most have not worked since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

Analysts say cutting PA salaries to employees in Gaza would increase discontent, putting further pressure on Hamas.