Former PA PM: Until Oct. 7, the PA paid for everything in Gaza, but Hamas stole the money from the citizens

Former PA PM: Until Oct. 7, the PA paid for everything in Gaza, but Hamas stole the money from the citizens

Former PA Prime Minister and Fatah Central Committee member Muhammad Shtayyeh: “In the Gaza Strip we had 19,000 [PA] Security [Forces] personnel who received salaries on Oct. 7, in Gaza we had 18,204 [PA] public employees… All of them received salaries from the PA.
Until Oct. 7… Although Hamas managed the security situation and the like, we continued to provide salaries and services. All the medical expenses [were paid] by the PA, All the curricula – we printed the textbooks in the West Bank and transferred them to Gaza.”

Host: “And the birth certificates.”

Muhammad Shtayyeh: “Everything, passports, birth certificates, all aspects of life. Even the electricity bills, everything was paid by the PA. The water bills, education, health, everything. Hamas used to collect [money for the] bills [from the citizens] and take [the money] for itself.”
[Al-Arabiya TV, YouTube channel, July 29, 2025]

Hamas collected money for electricity and water etc. from the Gazan citizens but did not use it to pay the bills.

Hamas' Oct. 7 war on Israel - Over 1,100 Israelis, including over 800 civilians, were murdered and over 5,000 wounded, in addition to approximately 251 who were abducted into the Gaza Strip (including 154 later released or liberated - among them 37 whose bodies were retrieved - and at least 41 who were killed on Oct. 7 whose bodies were abducted to Gaza), in a Hamas terror war that began when approximately 3,000 Hamas terrorists and thousands of Gazan civilians broke through Israel's security fence at the Gaza Strip border and launched a surprise attack, taking control of several Israeli towns and attacking a music festival on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, which fell on the Sabbath, Oct. 7, 2023. During the massacre the terrorists tortured, raped, shot, beheaded, and burned their victims alive, murdering entire families and leaving at least 21 children without parents. Hamas terrorists also fired at least 5,000 rockets at Israeli population centers.
In response, Israel launched Operation Iron Swords to counter the Hamas terror threat. Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon joined Hamas' terror war starting from the following day, attacking Israel from the north. Frequent rocket launches, drone attacks, and shootings continued from Lebanon throughout the war, causing Israel to respond with a ground invasion of southern Lebanon on Oct. 1, 2024, after taking out Hezbollah's leadership. In this conflict with Hezbollah over 40 Israeli civilians and over 70 Israeli soldiers were killed and nearly 200 Israelis were wounded. As a result of the attacks from Gaza and Lebanon, roughly 200,000 Israeli residents of the north and south were internally displaced during the war.