Unpaid Gaza employees lash out at Qatari ambassador

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — On Feb. 19, some Palestinians lashed out at Qatar's ambassador to the Palestinian territories, Mohammed Al-Emadi, during his visit to the Gaza Strip, sparking conflicting reactions. Some Arab media outlets that support the Gulf states' boycott of Qatar portrayed the demonstration as a Palestinian refusal of Qatar’s support for Gaza.

Some angry cleaning workers at Al-Shifa Hospital who have not received their salaries for five months shouted and pushed each other toward Emadi as he headed toward his car after his press conference. Emadi was there to announce the details of a $9 million Qatari grant for the hospital, which is the largest medical complex in Gaza City. Emadi said the grant would include funding for medical supplies, food and fuel, among other things, but he added that the unpaid salaries issue does not involve his country. The workers expressed their objection to Emadi ignoring their payment issue during the press conference, and security forces had to escort Emadi away from the premises.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has contracts with private cleaning companies handling the cleaning in hospitals and governmental health centers. Hamas handed the ministries over to the consensus government in Ramallah in the West Bank following the reconciliation agreement signed Oct. 12 in Cairo between Hamas and Fatah. The ministry in Gaza thus stopped paying the companies, thinking that the government in Ramallah would pay them. But Ramallah refused, saying the Ministry of Health in Gaza is not paying money it owes to the Palestinian Authority treasury, which amounts to about $20 million per month.

The reconciliation has been stalled, but Egypt, which has acted as mediator between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza, sent a delegation Feb. 25 to the Gaza Strip in an effort to move the process forward.