How Hamas Maintains Its Payroll Amid Ongoing Conflict

Sun Nov 30 2025 21:25:16 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Despite severe challenges, Hamas uses an underground cash system to pay civil servants, sparking increasing resentment in Gaza.

In a besieged Gaza, Hamas continues to pay its 30,000 civil servants approximately $7 million in salaries, utilizing a covert cash-based method amid a backdrop of severe inflation and food shortages. The complicated and risky process involves covert meetings for cash distribution, leading to growing discontent among citizens, especially against a backdrop of accusations of selective aid distribution.

The secret payment system employed by Hamas amidst ongoing conflict showcases the group's efforts to sustain its political infrastructure. Over the past two years of war, while Hamas's military capabilities have dwindled, it has managed to maintain payments to approximately 30,000 civil servants, totaling around $7 million (£5.3 million). Civil servants have reported receiving about $300 recently, reflecting only a portion of their original salaries amidst soaring inflation and severe food shortages in Gaza. Current conditions have led to widespread discontent as the economy struggles, with some basic commodities like flour now costing an exorbitant $80 per kilogram.

With the banking system in Gaza non-functional, retrieving salaries can often be perilous due to Israeli countermeasures aimed at Hamas's financial operations. Employees receive encrypted texts directing them to clandestine meeting locations where payments are made discreetly; a process so fraught that one worker admitted to saying goodbye to his family, fearing he might not return.

For example, Alaa, a schoolteacher and family provider, described his struggle to navigate the complexities of salary collection, receiving cash that is mostly unusable due to its condition. He often resorts to seeking food aid to feed his family, illustrating the dire circumstances many are under.

Even as one of Hamas's financial leaders was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike, the group seems to sustain its operations through a combination of resourcefulness and prior stockpilation. Officially, Hamas relies on taxation, import duties, and foreign funding, including Qatar's financial support, to redirect resources amid the ongoing war.

However, this has led to accusations from within Gaza, as many citizens feel neglected, especially when seeing neighbors affiliated with Hamas receiving food packages. The sentiment is one of betrayal, as these residents question why Hamas's leadership failed to procure essential aid prior to the outbreak of heightened conflict.

Allegations surrounding the appropriation of international aid by Hamas complicate the situation further, leaving many without access to essential food and medical supplies. The conversation around these ongoing humanitarian issues highlights the challenges faced not just by those in power, but by the civilian population enduring the consequences of a prolonged conflict marked by scarcity and suffering.