There is enough money in Gaza to pay the salaries of government workers there without funds transfers from Israel, according to a document revealed in the Hebrew-language daily Yediot Acharonot.
However, Jerusalem will continue to send millions of dollars to the Hamas terrorist-controlled region anyway, according to the Prime Minister's Office. A payment of 50 million shekels ($12.5) was sent last week as part of Israel's regular transfers of millions of shekels in tax monies collected on behalf of the PA government to Hamas in Gaza.
A military-diplomatic document disputes the claim that the Hamas-controlled Gaza government is choked and needs the money. Three quarters of the salaries were paid before the last Israeli transfer of NIS 50 million in funds. The authors of the document, dated May 17, say it is not the first time the phenomenon has occurred.
According to statements by the Hamas Finance Minister quoted in the document, monthly salaries in Gaza total only 6 million shekels, leaving some 46 shekels million unaccounted for. Moreover, the chairman of the Gaza-based Islamic Bank affirmed that the "liquidity crisis" in the region's financial institutions had ended. .
Nevertheless, Reuters re-printed a United Nations report, without taking responsibility for it, that claims “a banking and liquidity crisis is affecting the lives of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: Civil servants are struggling to get their salaries, and humanitarian aid is being delayed. Thousands of welfare benefit recipients are not getting their dues.”
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs quoted Christian Berger, the Jerusalem-based representative of the European Commission, who alleged that Gaza requires double the amount of money that Israel sends approximately every month.
Critics of the transfers claim that Israel has no way of accounting for all the money. Defense sources have contended that at least part of the money is laundered and used to fund the Hamas government and terrorist acts