Around 1,000 people have demonstrated in the West Bank city of Nablus over the Palestinian Authority's failure to pay government workers' salaries, an AFP correspondent said.
‘Our children are hungry,’ chanted some in the crowd. ‘We don't want our children to go hungry for political reasons.’
Demonstrators also called on ‘the world and Arab countries to put an end to our suffering.’
The demonstration in the center of town was organized by a union representing employees of all government ministries, a union official told AFP Saturday.
The union is linked to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas's former ruling Fatah party, which was ousted from power following Hamas's landslide election win in January.
A planned strike by Palestinian civil servants to protest the government's failure to pay their salaries did not go ahead as scheduled Saturday, cabinet spokesman Ghazi Hamad told AFP.
The government employees union had announced a two-hour walkout over the non-payment of salaries by the cash-starved Hamas-led government.
The Palestinian Authority employs more than 160,000 people, half of whom work for the security services.
The workers have not received checks for March or April.
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya said Wednesday that his government had obtained enough aid from Arab and Muslim states to pay staff but slammed US pressure on banks for preventing the money from being transferred.
The European Union, formerly the largest donor to the Palestinians, and the United States suspended direct aid after Hamas took office in March given the Islamists' refusal to renounce violence or recognize Israel's right to exist.