West Bank family tells of crisis

[Englander]

By Martin Patience
BBC News, Nablus

Hussein Mansour, 39, and his wife, Ibtisam, 30, counted themselves lucky until three months ago.

Although the couple live in the rundown Balata refugee camp in Nablus, they both drew salaries from the Palestinian Authority.

Mr Mansour works at the Saed Sayed school in Nablus. His wife works at the city's al-Watani hospital as a nurse.

But following Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections, the European Union and the US both cut aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Israel is also withholding $50m in tax revenues every month.

That means that more than 160,000 state employees of the Palestinian Authority - teachers, nurses, the police and security forces - have not been paid for over two and half months.

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