The public workers union in the Gaza Strip announced that a general strike would be in effect on Thursday, across all public institutions, in protest against the government's continued failure to pay salaries to tens of thousands of employees of the former Hamas government.

The union chairman Mohamed Seyam said at a press conference in Gaza that the union will not agree to negotiations on the rights of the workers 

The strike announcement signals a renewed determination by public workers to pressure the Fatah-Hamas unity government to address the simmering crisis over the workers, whose future has been uncertain since the April 2014 unity deal, said Maan news agency.

After Hamas takeover the Palestinian enclave, the group appointed 40,000 employees.

Although the establishment of a unity government in June ended seven years of political division between Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, key issues such as the payment of workers employed by the previous Hamas-led government in Gaza were not settled.

Since the political division between Hamas and Fatah began in 2007, Hamas ran a separate government in the Gaza Strip with its own civil service of around 50,000 employees
Source: MENA