No payday for Palestinians

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinian policeman Ibrahim Abu Hattab, a father of four, already owes half his next salary to the local grocery for food, diapers and cigarettes, but doesn't know whether he'll ever get a paycheck again.

Abu Hattab and some 140,000 other Palestinian government employees were dealt a blow Friday when the European Union announced it is cutting off aid to the new Hamas rulers and the United States said it will cancel or suspend more than $411 million in projects aimed at indirectly assisting Palestinians.

Hamas has said it is broke and will have trouble paying employees without massive foreign aid. Government salaries sustain about one-third of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. After more than five years of fighting with Israel, about 43 percent of the Palestinians live in poverty.

Hamas complained Friday that the aid cutoff amounts to collective punishment of the Palestinians. However, the Islamic militant group refuses to meet the international community's conditions for restoring aid — recognition of Israel, renunciation of violence and acceptance of existing peace agreements.

Many Palestinians, especially those working for the government, are increasingly worried about the future, following Friday's announcements from Brussels and Washington.

In Gaza City, Abu Hattab, a military policeman, said he makes about $360 a month to support a family of six. March paychecks are a week overdue, and the Palestinian finance minister, Omar Abdel Razek, has said he is $85 million short of covering the monthly payroll — more than half the required total.

Abu Hattab, 27, said that if even he eventually gets paid for March, he'll have to give nearly half his paycheck to the neighborhood grocery for last month's expenses and may not have enough for rent.

If Hamas cannot provide for the Palestinians, it has no business staying in power, he said.

"It's not simple for Hamas, but we want to live, with or without Hamas," Abu Hattab said. "If it gets worse, then we can just say farewell [to Hamas]."

With the Palestinian Authority strapped for cash, government paychecks have repeatedly been late during the past five years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. The economic downturn has spurred domestic unrest, including members of the security forces seizing government offices to press for jobs or higher wages.

However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and members of his Fatah Party made the payroll each month, often by borrowing from banks or appealing to foreign donors for more cash. Hamas does not have such an option.

Abbas said that Hamas is showing signs of confusion after a week running the Palestinian Authority, and he predicted that its leaders would soften their stance toward Israel and accept its right to exist.

"If they do not change, nobody will deal with them," Abbas said Thursday.

Hamas swept aside Abbas' Fatah movement in parliamentary elections on Jan. 25, and Abbas said that "they had some illusions that they can deliver, they can survive, let the world go to hell. But I don't think it's doable now. They have started realizing that this is not doable."

A senior Hamas official said Friday the group is ready to accept a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, which would imply recognition of Israel, without requiring Hamas to state this formally. But Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he was not aware of a two-state proposal.

Hamas leaders also confirmed a report Friday in Israel's Haaretz daily that the group is ready to extend a truce it has been observing for the past year, and will pressure other militant groups to follow suit, if Israel halts attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In the latest such attack Friday, Israeli aircraft fired missiles into a car carrying Palestinian militants, killing six people including a bomb maker and his 5-year-old daughter, in the deadliest Israeli strike since Hamas took office.

Information from The Washington Post is included in this report.