The political contest between Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and former colleague Mohammad Dahlan (pictured) has sharpened inside Gaza, with the Authority refusing to pay the salaries of 200 employees considered Dahlan loyalists.
In retaliation, Dahlan’s faction published the names of around 100 officers in Gaza whom they accused of informing for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in the West Bank. A car belonging to one of the Authority’s officers was reportedly burnt.
Dahlan, who once headed the Authority’s security forces in Gaza, was expelled from Abbas’s Fatah party in 2011.
The Gazan leadership of Hamas has issued a statement supporting the 200 unpaid civil servants.
The Palestinian Authority faces difficulties in paying any salaries after Israel’s cut-off of tax revenues in December, in response to the Palestinian application to join the International Criminal Court and other international agencies.
