A senior aide to Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday that the Palestinian Authority chairman will use some of the $100 million in tax rebates recently transferred by Israel to pay overdue salaries of the Palestinian security forces. In all, Abbas is spending $152 million for salaries of the security forces and other items, such as debt payment and welfare services, his aide, Rafiq Husseini, told a news conference.
In addition to the Israeli tax rebates - money that was frozen after Hamas came to power last year - Abbas has received $30 million from the United Arab Emirates and $22 million from Qatar, Husseini said. Since winning parliament elections a year ago, the Islamic militant Hamas has had trouble paying 165,000 civil servants, including 80,000 members of the security forces, because of an international aid boycott. |