World Bulletin/News Desk

Dozens of Palestinian civil servants stormed cabinet headquarters in Gaza City to demand the payment of overdue salaries.

"Employees stormed cabinet headquarters during a meeting of the Palestinian unity government to demand their salaries, which haven't been paid for seven months," Mohamed Seyam, head of the Gaza Strip's civil servants' union, told The Anadolu Agency.

"Employees have decided not to leave cabinet headquarters until they are paid," he said.

According to the Gaza Strip's Finance Ministry, Hamas-appointed employees in the strip will each receive 1,000 Israeli shekels (roughly $255) next Thursday.

The union, which is linked to Hamas, has organized a number of single-day strikes in recent months to demand recognition by the Palestinian unity government, which was drawn up last summer.

Some 45,000 Hamas-appointed civil servants in the Gaza Strip stopped receiving their salaries soon after the new unity government was unveiled last June.

The unity government was drawn up in line with a reconciliation deal signed two months earlier between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah.

Last October, around 24,000 civil servants in the Gaza Strip received $1,200 each under the terms of a Qatar-funded plan by the unity government to pay Hamas-appointed employees some of the back salaries they were owed.

Successive Ramallah-based Palestinian governments have refused to formally recognize the Gaza Strip's civil servants – a state of affairs that has hindered past reconciliation attempts between Fatah and Hamas.

The unity government, led by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, has yet to assume political control over the Gaza Strip, which has further impeded the disbursement of salaries for the coastal enclave's civil servants.