Although the war in Gaza has been ongoing for nearly two years, Hamas continues to pay salaries to thousands of civilian employees every month through a covert system. This system is dangerous, complex, and entirely based on cash.
Every 10 weeks, Hamas pays about $7 million to approximately 30,000 of its civilian workers. Each worker receives only about 20% of their pre-war salary. Typically, that is around $300, and even that often arrives in poor or unusable condition.
Due to the collapsed banking system, employees receive the cash in secret locations. Recipients are sent a coded message: “Go have tea with a friend.” At the designated spot, an unknown individual hands over an envelope of cash and disappears immediately. One Hamas Ministry of Religious Affairs employee said in an interview that every time he leaves to collect his salary, he says goodbye to his family: “I might not come back.”
Israel is trying to disrupt this payment system. Salary distributors are regularly targeted. As a result, each payment operation becomes increasingly life-threatening. Along with salaries, Hamas also distributes food aid to its supporters. However, since this aid is reportedly given only to families loyal to Hamas, public dissatisfaction is growing.
During the war, Hamas has maintained financial stability primarily through reserves of around $700 million that were secretly stored in underground tunnel networks before the conflict began.
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