Gaza nurses strike over pay

Thousands of nurses on strike in hospitals GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- More than 6,000 nurses are on strike protesting a financial and administrative dispute. Head of the nurses union Mu’tasem Salah said all nurses in the public sector are carrying out a sit-in strike over unfulfilled promises from the government six years earlier. Before holding elections for the union in January, the government pledged to deliver a bonus in cash and the cabinet approved the measure, Saleh said. It has not been implemented. He accused Gaza Minister of Health Bassem Na'eem of stalling the payment of nurses' bonuses. The Hamas-run ministry had not paid bonuses to staff who were employed after 2006, while the Ramallah government paid bonuses to all nurses, the union official said. The doctors union, meanwhile, says it will escalate its strike Sunday if demands are not met. After a meeting on Wednesday, officials said doctors would work only from 8-11 a.m. Wednesday and the next two Sundays. A union statement called on the health minister to resolve the dispute between the doctors and the government. They also demanded that the ministry cancel its decision forbidding the transfer of patients from one hospital to another. The order excludes cancer patients and other serious cases.