World Bulletin/News Desk

Palestinian resistance movement Hamas will pay half a month's worth of overdue salaries for the Gaza Strip's military personnel, a source close to the movement has said.

Earlier on Sunday, Youssef al-Kayali, undersecretary of the Palestinian Finance Ministry in the Gaza Strip, said that the latter's military personnel will receive half a month's worth of salaries on Monday, reported al-Rai, a news agency close to Hamas.

Al-Kayali had not identified the source of funding for payments to be made to military personnel, who had been excluded from a Qatari-funded plan by the Palestinian unity government to pay several months' worth of delayed salaries for civil servants in the Gaza Strip.

Around 24,000 civil servants in the Gaza Strip received $1,200 each after Qatar provided Ramallah with a $30-million grant to cover salary shortfalls.

Some 40,000 civil servants employed by the Hamas government stopped receiving salaries soon after the formation this summer of a Palestinian national unity government.

The new government was unveiled in line with an April reconciliation agreement between Hamas and rival Palestinian faction Fatah, who established separate governments in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following a conflict in 2007.

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