The Palestinian National Accord Government has ignored, for the second time during its meetings, the non-payment of salaries to the Palestinian Authority’s employees in Gaza. This complete disregard indicates a decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to suspend the salaries of staff members for several months, in order to exert pressure on Hamas to hand over the Gaza Strip over to the government. However, the Palestinian Authority did not issue any official confirmation on this matter. Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that there was a plan to refer all employees in Gaza to early retirement. Abbas had threatened to adopt new financial, legal and administrative measures against the Gaza Strip, but Egypt intervened to prevent the implementation of such measures and to give reconciliation a new chance. Israeli sources said, however, that the Palestinian president agreed to postpone his measures, but would not pay salaries to the employees of the Authority starting this April. In a statement after its weekly meeting on Tuesday, the government reiterated Abbas’ position, voiced in his speech to Sunday’s Arab Summit, on the ongoing efforts to achieve reconciliation with Hamas. “The Palestinian leadership responded to all Arab and Egyptian efforts in this file, and provided the opportunity, once again, to end the division,” the government said, adding that it has allotted half of its budget “to our people in Gaza, without being able to take over its responsibilities fully and effectively.” According to official statistics, the number of state employees in Gaza registered at the General Staff Office amounts to around 60,000, who support about 800,000 people in the coastal strip.