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Wednesday, February 10, 2010     INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING

Hamas gets hit with a cash flow crisis in Gaza

GAZA CITY — Hamas has failed to pay its security forces.   

Palestinian sources said about 20,000 security and military personnel did not receive their salaries for January 2010. They said the delay signaled a cash flow crisis by the Hamas regime.

"The security forces have been told that they will get paid before other civil servants," a Palestinian source said. "The government has been having a problem getting the cash."

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Hamas, with a monthly payroll of $16 million, maintains a civil service of 34,000, Middle East Newsline reported. The sources said about 5,000 civil servants, mostly part-time employees, already received their January salaries.

The Hamas Finance Ministry has acknowledged a delay in salaries. The ministry said the delay stemmed from a new procedure that included the new Palestinian Islamic National Bank.

The sources said Hamas has obtained its cash through smuggling from neighboring Egypt. They said Iran and Gulf Cooperation Council states relayed at least $10 million per month in cash funneled through the tunnel network that spanned the Gaza Strip and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Hamas was also said to have been earning more than $10 million per month through the tunnel network that connects the Gaza Strip with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The smuggling has been threatened by an Egyptian project to construct a land and sea barrier along the 14-kilometer Gaza-Sinai border.

The salary delay was reported as Hamas, which passed a $540 million budget for 2010, has sought to expand its security forces. In February, the Hamas Interior Ministry began processing thousands of applicants for the police.



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