World Bulletin/News Desk

Palestinian public employees in the Gaza Strip have staged a "general strike" to protest the months-long delay in their salaries, the employees' union said on Wednesday.

"The strike by employees in all Gaza's ministries and government institutions is a response to not having received their salaries yet," Mohamed Seyam, the head of the Gaza Strip's public employees' union, told Anadolu Agency.

The strike, he added, is also a response to "discrimination" by the Palestinian unity government in Ramallah against the Gaza Strip's government employees.

"The [unity government] has nothing to offer Gaza's employees but vague promises," Seyam said.

Palestinian government spokesman Ihab Bassiso denied ignoring the Gaza Strip's employees' grievances.

He asserted to AA that $30 million, paid for by Qatar, will be discharged to pay off the salaries of Gaza's public employees, under the U.N.'s supervision, by the end of the month.

Some 45,000 civil servants employed by Hamas movement have stopped receiving their salaries soon after a national unity government was formed in June following a reconciliation deal between Hamas and rival Fatah in the West Bank.

The new government, however, has yet to assume political control of the Gaza Strip, impeding payment of Gaza's civil servants.

Both factions, meanwhile, continue to accuse each other of attempting to sabotage the reconciliation deal.