On Friday Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that the monarchy of Qatar would resolve the issue of the salaries of Gaza-based Hamas employees who were effectively fired when the Palestinian unity government was formed nearly two weeks ago.

The Gulf state said it would contribute a total of $60 million (44 million euros) while the Palestinian Authority grapples with a pay row, the first challenge for a government formed to try to end years of Palestinian rivalry.

Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah “received a phone call from the Qatari prime minister [Sheikh Abdullah bin Naser bin Khalifa al-Thani], who told him that $20 million would be transferred each month for three months to pay Gaza employees,” government spokesperson Ihab Bseiso said in a statement.

The Qatari contribution would ease friction that had been developing between Fatah and Hamas over the salaries.  The funds were promised after a phone call earlier this month from Hamas’s former prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, to Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. According to the report, “[t]he money would go to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority,” and then transferred through a “special fund” to Gaza.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah previously claimed that he can’t control Hamas, but in this case he apparently would be disbursing funds to Hamas employees. Reports suggest that the PA is not preventing Hamas from “establish[ing] a shadow civilian infrastructure throughout the West Bank.”

The Obama administration is finding its decision to fund the Palestinian Authority despite the unity deal with Hamas increasingly questioned by the media and bipartisan majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

[Photo: afpbr / YouTube ]