PA economy in the toilet, but they will pay salaries to terrorists anyway

From Ma'an:

Palestinian Authority minister Shawqi al-Ayasa said the West Bank-Gaza unity government is working on a "deteriorating" budget after not receiving money from donors as scheduled.

"The government's budget is below zero, and it's starting to borrow from banks to move forward, because only less than third of donor funds that were scheduled to be received this year arrived," Al-Ayasa told Ma'an in a television interview.

"The US has not provided a single penny since Jan. 1, and Europe and Arab states only provided a third of what they were scheduled to give," he said.

Before the war the biggest issue between Fatah and Hamas was about salaries in Gaza. Since 2007, the PA was paying its Gaza workers to sit home and not work, as Hamas took over all the jobs. With the unity government, the PA tried to reinstate the Fatah workers and not to pay the Hamas workers who supplanted them. Hamas workers were unhappy and there were some tense scenes and violence outside Gaza banks.

So now that the PA has severe financial trouble, what is it going to do?

The Palestinian Authority will pay Hamas civil servants in Gaza on Wednesday, ending a months-long salary crisis following the announcement of a unity government.

Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouq said an agreement was reached between Hamas and PA officials on Sunday.

Yes, the cash-strapped PA will pay for double the workers that Gaza needs!

And of course the money that goes towards Hamas workers and institutions will be subject to being diverted to some other purposes.

Of course, the PA will continue to pay salaries to terrorists in prison, families of dead terrorists and to freed prisoners, since they are the top priority of the "moderate" PA government.

(h/t Yoel, even though I found it first :) )