The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) cabinet on Monday approved its budget for 2010, which amounts to 3.9 billion U.S. dollars.
The cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said in a statement after it held its weekly meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that around 50 percent of the PNA budget was devoted to the Gaza Strip, ruled since 2007 by the Islamic Hamas movement, President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party's rival.
"The budget also includes the social sector such as health, education and social welfare," said the cabinet, adding "part of the budget will be devoted for the justice sector and also for supporting the residents of East Jerusalem."
The cabinet added that East Jerusalem and its Palestinian residents "were badly affected by the Israeli policy of building the separation wall and expansion of settlement."
It also said that another part of the budget will be devoted for supporting the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and their families as well, in addition to implementing a reform plan of building the institutions of the future independent Palestinian statehood.
Fayyad's cabinet also said that the budget of this year would focus on resources for the expenses of development, estimated at 670 million dollars, an increase of 67 percent compared with last year.
The general budget for this year will focus on reinforcing the self-Palestinian abilities by increasing local income by 20 percent and controlling the running cost.
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