Qatar steps in to pay civil servants wages in Gaza
Qatar paid the salaries of nearly 30,000 Gazan civil servants on Friday, delighting the impoverished workers but angering some in the deeply divided Palestinian leadership who balked at the intervention of a foreign power.
Thousands queued in the winter cold to get their cash at post offices—one of which was decorated with a large mural of Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the message "Thanks Qatar".
"If the Qatari donation stops, we will be destroyed," said 45-year-old civil servant Ammar Fayyad, the main bread-winner in his 13-strong family.
Palestinian sources said Friday's payout, thought to be around $15 million, was part of a $90 million Qatari donation that began in November and is due to be paid into Gaza over six months.
