Palestinian government urges Muslims to pay contributions immediately

Palestinian officials yesterday urged Arab and Islamic countries that pledge financial assistance to the Hamas-led government to pay their contributions immediately.

"We urge all our Arab and Muslim countries that pledged financial aid to the Palestinian people to carry out their undertakings immediately," said Ghazi Hamed, spokesman for the government in the Gaza Strip.

Hamed said the government was undergoing a "very acute crisis" thanks to severe sanctions by the United States, Israel and Europe.

Several Arab and Islamic countries have pledged to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to help the government pay the salaries of some 140,000 Palestinian civil servants who have not received their March salaries.

On Tuesday, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said Saudi Arabia pledged to pay $ 90 million in emergency aid to the Palestinians. Kuwait also pledged to pay another $ 7.5 million for the Palestinians, Al-Zahar was quoted as saying.

Al-Zahar said the money would be transferred to Palestine within a few days.