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.