Unpaid teachers closed thousands of schools across the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Saturday, the first day of the school year, in a major challenge to the Hamas government.
In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Hamas gunmen patrolled school areas, unsuccessfully trying to persuade teachers, students and administrators who showed up at school to remain. In the West Bank, activists from Fatah party stood in front of schools, urging teachers and students to comply with the strike call, at times shooting in the air.
Teachers launched the open-ended strike because the Hamas government has not paid them or 130,000 other government employees since taking office in March. The strike was widely viewed as a tactic by Fatah to pressure Hamas to join with it in a so-called national unity government.
The 37,000 striking teachers were to be joined by the civil servant and health workers unions, putting a total of 80,000 workers on strike. Garbage collectors in Gaza City walked off the job earlier this week, the AP reported.
Hamas Radio repeatedly broadcast that the strike had failed in the West Bank and central Gaza.
