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New Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Thursday that the aid cuts hurt the Palestinian people, not the government."We were hoping that some countries would respect the rules of the democratic game and that they would have had different positions and not act this way," he said.
The Palestinian Authority gets a large part of its approximately $1.9 billion annual budget from overseas sources, and it may run into immediate difficulties next week when March salaries are to be paid for some 140,000 government employees.
Hamas officials said they hoped Arab and Islamic countries would fill the funding gap, but the Arab League summit earlier this week ended with states only reaffirming past pledges to provide the $55 million a month, a commitment they have rarely met.
Amid the threatened aid cuts, the new Hamas ministers assumed control of their offices, sometimes in unorthodox ceremonies.
Outgoing prime...
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