Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told the first full meeting of his Hamas-led government on Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority's treasury was empty.
‘The Ministry of Finance has inherited an entirely empty treasury in addition to the debts of the ministry and the government in general,’ Haniyeh said.
Haniyeh said the government would do its best to pay salaries to the Authority's 140,000 employees despite a cash crunch caused in large part by cuts in Israeli tax revenue transfers since Hamas won elections in January.