Dep Minister: PA will not pay terrorist group Hamas wages in Gaza.

Dep Minister: PA will not pay terrorist group Hamas wages in Gaza.(MaanNews).

Palestinian Authority Deputy Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa said Sunday that the PA will not pay the salaries of Hamas civil servants in Gaza, but may provide financial assistance.

"We are looking for a temporary solution to send money through non-governmental organizations such as the United Nations or any other entity," Mustafa told Ma'an.

"We want to avoid any legal confrontation with the United States whose law prohibits channeling money to Hamas because it's blacklisted as a terrorist organization according to American law."

Since signing a unity agreement in April, Hamas said that the new government must take responsibility for paying its 45,000 employees, some 27,000 of which are civil servants, he said.

PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said Sunday that the problem of wages had turned into the main stumbling block to an intra-Palestinian reconciliation deal.

The international community has threatened to boycott the Palestinian leadership if it pays the salaries of former Hamas employees in Gaza, Hamdallah added.

"The government and the banks operating in the Palestinian territories were warned that if they make these payments to former Hamas government employees in Gaza then the government and the people will be boycotted," he said.

"If this happens, the Palestinian banking system will face a huge problem that will threaten the Palestinian situation in general," he told AFP.

Meanwhile, Mustafa said that the PA will submit its own report on damages in Gaza to a donor conference set to take place in October.

Twenty teams have been working with international organizations to calculate economic losses during Israel's devastating seven-week offensive.

The PA is considering a combination of cash payments and mobile housing for those displaced during the conflict, he added.

A donor conference due to be held in New York on Sept. 22 will evaluate financial support to the PA, Mustafa said.Hmmm....Ok, the UN will now officially pay the terrorist wages?