Gaza civil servants to stage strike on Thursday over unpaid salaries

The Hamas-hired workers' union in the Gaza Strip announced staging an all-out strike on Thursday over the coalition government's failure to pay employees' salaries.

Hospitals and emergency centers will remain open, the union's head, Mohammed Seyam, said.

The strike comes in protest of the government's denial of employees rights and in solidarity with UNRWA employees who staged a protest on Monday against what they termed as dwindling UNRWA resources.

The UNRWA decided last month to stop paying teachers for their annual leave days due to the financial hardship the agency is facing.

Seyam called on the Finance Ministry to pay civil servants their salaries in full and securing needed transportation for employees to be able to reach their workplaces.

Since Hamas took the helm of the Gaza Strip in 2007, about 40,000 employees were appointed in various sectors and they are still in office after the formation of the coalition government in June 2014.

Hamas-hired employees stage every now and then protests to call for paying their salaries.

The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has been paying its own 70,000-strong workforce in Gaza, even though the majority of them no longer work under Hamas rule