PA PM: PA will continue paying salaries of employees and utilities in Gaza
Headline: "Hamdallah: We will be the executive branch of every agreement and we are prepared to bear our full responsibility for Gaza"
"[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: 'We will not bargain over our political positions and national principles for money. We are being subjected to great political pressures but we will deal with them and find solutions, and we will not surrender.'
Hamdallah added in his meeting today, Thursday [Aug. 2, 2018], in Ramallah with a selection of journalists, editors-in-chief, and writers… that 'I do not think that there is one Palestinian who can abandon Jerusalem and the refugees. We will not bargain over the basic principles for money, and they attempted to pressure us in the past but did not succeed.' […] He also added: 'We are now paying the water, electric, and sewage bills and the medical referrals in the Gaza Strip, and what is important for you to know is that we have 35,000 [public] employees in the Gaza Strip for whom we are paying 50% of their salaries, after having paid 70% in the past. We emphasize that their rights are protected and our commitment to them is firm; and to whoever is spreading populist slogans, we are committed to that for which we are responsible, while we receive no more than 20 million shekels a month from the Gaza Strip.’"
"[PA] Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said: 'We will not bargain over our political positions and national principles for money. We are being subjected to great political pressures but we will deal with them and find solutions, and we will not surrender.'
Hamdallah added in his meeting today, Thursday [Aug. 2, 2018], in Ramallah with a selection of journalists, editors-in-chief, and writers… that 'I do not think that there is one Palestinian who can abandon Jerusalem and the refugees. We will not bargain over the basic principles for money, and they attempted to pressure us in the past but did not succeed.' […] He also added: 'We are now paying the water, electric, and sewage bills and the medical referrals in the Gaza Strip, and what is important for you to know is that we have 35,000 [public] employees in the Gaza Strip for whom we are paying 50% of their salaries, after having paid 70% in the past. We emphasize that their rights are protected and our commitment to them is firm; and to whoever is spreading populist slogans, we are committed to that for which we are responsible, while we receive no more than 20 million shekels a month from the Gaza Strip.’"