Crisis-stricken Hamas borrows from local banks
The Hamas movement has been forced to borrow from the local banks to fund the salaries of its 45,000 employees amid low local revenues, costly subsidies and declining Qatari financial grants.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Hamas-run Ministry of Finance is battling a new financial crisis amid declining fiscal revenues and soaring prices of most imported consumer goods in the wake of the Russian war on Ukraine.
Hamas has cut taxes on and even subsidized fuel and cooking gas supplies from Egypt, paying the price difference after their global hike. These costs and shrinking tax revenues have drained the treasury.
Issam al-Daalis, head of the Governing Committee for the Management of Gaza Issues, headed to Cairo in early June in an effort to boost bilateral trade exchange and improve revenue. In a statement upon his return from Cairo on June 8, Daalis said that the visit gone well.
The first signs of the financial crisis in Gaza loomed in early June, when the Finance Ministry was forced to take out a loan from the local Islamic National Bank and the Palestine Production Bank to pay the salaries of its 45,000 employees in the Gaza Strip.
