Hamas fighters. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Palestinian Authority (PA) reportedly cut the salaries of 37 Hamas terrorists as part of a series of actions to pressure the terror group into relinquishing its control of the Gaza Strip.

Ahmad Bahar, first deputy speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), said the PA notified Hamas members operating in the disputed territories that they would no longer be entitled to salary payments from the PA, the Palestinian news outlet Safa reported.

Bahar, who referred to the PA measure as a “declaration of war,” said the speaker of the PLC, Aziz Duwaik, was directly affected by the salary cut. As speaker of the legislative body, Duwaik, who was formerly imprisoned by Israel on charges of being a member of Hamas, is next in line as the PA’s president if Mahmoud Abbas cannot fulfill his duties.

The PLC has not met since Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s Fatah faction in 2007.

In early June, hundreds of Hamas terrorists formerly imprisoned by Israel claimed they had not received their monthly payments from the PA. The long-running feud between Hamas and Fatah has led to an ongoing electricity shortage in Gaza.