A Hamas spokesman said Monday that ministers of the unity government informed him they were leaving the Gaza Strip upon instructions by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah after failing to register civil servants.

Sami Abu Zuhri said in news conference that he was informed that the cabinet did not have the authority to reach any agreement.

He added that it was regretful that the government’s visit was only concerned with the employees issue, and called on the unity government to take its responsibility toward ending the suffering of Gazans.

Earlier, Hamdallah denied that talks with Hamas had reached a stalemate, adding that he was optimistic that outstanding issues could be resolved.

Hamdallah told Ma’an by phone from Indonesia that ministers would return to Ramallah from Gaza after a short visit, before he heads back to the Strip at the end of the week upon his return.

He called on Palestinians not to lose hope in reconciliation, adding that he is still convinced of the possibility and urgency of reaching solutions with Hamas.

Earlier Monday, a high-profile bid by the unity government to solve the employee dispute was thrown into disarray after a delegation of government officials was prevented from leaving their hotel to attend arranged meetings.

The delegation, which arrived in Gaza City on Sunday and was staying at a hotel in the al-Mashtal area west of Gaza City, had intended to meet with civil servants at the center of the employee dispute.

However, sources told Ma’an that local authorities had prevented the delegation from carrying out their work, and the delegation was ready to return to the West Bank.

The talks were supposed to begin Monday.

Salah Zeidan, member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine’s politburo, said that factions were mediating to allow the unity government officials to leave the hotel and carry out their job.

The delegation of 40 government officials, among them eight ministers, crossed the Beit Hanoun terminal into Gaza on Sunday in a bid to tackle a thorny dispute over employees.

The question of government employees has been a major point of dispute between the Fatah faction of President Mahmoud Abbas, which is based in the West Bank, and the rival Hamas movement, whose power base is in Gaza.

Since 2014, when the two factions tried to bury the hatchet after years of bitter and bloody rivalry, Hamas has demanded that the government regulate the salaries of its 50,000 employees who have been on the books since it seized power in the tiny enclave in 2007.

They took over from 70,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority who were forced out of their positions but have still been receiving their salaries.

But the consensus government has pledged to return the 70,000 former employees to their positions, saying that the Hamas workers would only be hired “according to need.”

Since the consensus government took office in June 2014, only around half of the Hamas employees — all of them civil servants — have received any money: a one-off payment of $1,200 at the end of October.

The rest, who are employed in security, have not received any salary payments in almost 11 months.

“The registration of those employees who were working before 2007 will begin on Monday and finish on May 7,” said government spokesman Ihab Bseiso. MAAN