Garbage rots in Gaza as workers walk out

Thu Aug 31, 3:12 PM ET

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - The smell of festering garbage, dead animals and burning trash hung over Gaza City on Thursday, the result of the latest strike by civil servants demanding that the Hamas-led government pay them their long-overdue salaries.

Municipal workers responsible for garbage collection, water treatment, and sewage processing went on strike in Gaza City and two other southern towns three days ago. The action - along with a broader strike threat by other unions linked to the opposition Fatah Party - has been widely viewed as a tactic to force Hamas to give in to demands to form a national unity government.

Since the strike started, garbage has flooded large bins on street corners and gathered nearby in piles, some six feet high. A dead cow rotted by the side of the road in one middle-class neighborhood.

Policemen and guards cover their faces with tissues when they stand outside for long periods of time, while some residents burn the garbage, adding to the rancid smell already hovering over Gaza City.

Hamas said its members, including legislators, would clean up Gaza's streets on Friday, calling the garbage strike a "sabotage attempt."

One striking sanitation worker said he felt awful to see his city turn into "a garbage dump."

"But we want to live," said Salman Abu Mahadi, 44, who has six children and added that he did not have money to pay rent. "Somebody must feel our suffering."

The Palestinian Authority has suffered a cash crunch since Hamas - which the U.S., Israel and EU list as a terror group - took power in March, and international donors froze aid to the government. With the government's 165,000 workers not receiving regular paychecks, many people in Gaza stopped paying their municipal taxes, which in turn made it impossible for the local governments to pay their employees, municipal officials said.

Despite the cash crisis, Hamas has rejected international demands that it recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Separately, unions working for the Palestinian Authority and led by loyalists of the rival Fatah Party threatened to launch open-ended strikes next week, delaying the start of the school year. Hamas also has denounced those planned strikes, saying the workers were being exploited by Hamas' political opponents to bring down the government.

In a move to appease angry teachers, the government will pay them a $330 advance, acting Finance Minister Samir Abu Aisheh said Thursday, calling on the teachers not to strike.

Meanwhile, the Labor Minister, Mohammed Barghouti, said his ministry had began distributing welfare payments to 50,000 unemployed laborers. They protested twice this month to demand money.

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