Palestinian Government Continues to Slash Public Wages

Palestinian Authority employees queue to receive their salaries from an ATM in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in April 2012. Reuters file photo
Palestinian Authority employees queue to receive their salaries from an ATM in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in April 2012. Reuters file photo
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Palestinian Government Continues to Slash Public Wages

Palestinian Authority employees queue to receive their salaries from an ATM in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in April 2012. Reuters file photo
Palestinian Authority employees queue to receive their salaries from an ATM in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip in April 2012. Reuters file photo

The Palestinian Ministry of Finance and Planning announced Sunday that government employees will only receive 50 percent of their August salaries, for the fourth month in a row.

It said in a statement that employees with salaries below 1,750 shekels (USD488) will receive their full wages, while the rest will be paid at least 1,750 shekels or half their salaries, Reuters reported.

The government will pay the wages of employees in the health, security, and education sectors on Tuesday while the rest will get paid Wednesday.

In May, the Palestinian Authority (PA) refused to receive taxes collected by Israel.

Israel collects some USD190 million a month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through its ports.

This amount contributes to 50 percent of the state’s budget whose deficit reached USD1.4 billion as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The PA fell short of its financial pledges in May, June, and July through paying incomplete salaries.



Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Hezbollah said its fighters on Thursday fired missiles at a military base near south Israel’s Ashdod, the first time it has targeted so deep inside Israel in more than a year of hostilities.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base" east of the southern city, around 150 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, "with a missile salvo," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.
Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Israel has launched airstrikes against Lebanon after Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack on Israel last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.