EU to pay gov't workers in Hamas-controlled Gaza [View All]

EU to pay gov't workers in Hamas-controlled Gaza
17 Jun 2007 15:58:02 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Adam Entous

JERUSALEM, June 17 (Reuters) - A European Union aid
programme plans to continue making subsistence payments
to tens of thousands of Palestinian government workers
and pensioners in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, EU
officials said on Sunday.

The EU payments may be one of the only financial cushions
for Gazans after Islamist Hamas seized control of the
territory in fierce fighting with President Mahmoud Abbas's
secular Fatah faction.

Israel and the United States want to isolate Hamas --
economically, diplomatically and militarily -- in the Gaza
Strip, while allowing funds to flow to the Western-backed
emergency government set up in the West Bank by Abbas.

-snip-

"It will continue to cover Gaza. It's not our policy to
strangle the Gaza people," a senior EU official said.

-snip-