Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Gaza City, on Tuesday.

GAZA CITY: The No. 2 in Hamas says he hopes to move from his base in Egypt to his native Gaza Strip following the formation of a Palestinian unity government last week.
Moussa Abu Marzouk also said that reconciliation efforts between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been bumpy.

The 63 year old said “there are problems, (but) it’s not a crisis.”

In recent days, a dispute erupted over salaries for more than 40,000 government employees hired during Hamas’ seven-year rule of Gaza. Abbas hasn’t said how they would be paid.

Abu Marzouk says Qatar has promised to solve the problem.

Abu Marzouk came to Gaza from Egypt in April for reconciliation talks. He said: “I intend to stay.”

Meanwhile, a Hamas leader accused Abbas’ Fatah party on Tuesday of jeopardizing a reconciliation deal. Angry police loyal to Hamas in the Gaza Strip ordered the closure of all banks in the coastal enclave until the salary issue was resolved, dealing a fresh blow to an already sickly economy.

The tensions shifted to the nearby West Bank on Monday, when Hamas said that security forces loyal to Abbas had used violence to break up a rally organized by the movement and had assaulted senior leader Hassan Youssef.

“Since the reconciliation pact was signed, the gap between us and Fatah and the security services has got bigger,” Youssef told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday.

“This is not unity. They are doing this to push us to say we do not want reconciliation. We want reconciliation,” the Hamas official said, accusing Abbas’s policemen of confiscating green flags and detaining the group’s supporters.

A security source in the West Bank said police intervened after protesters began chanting slogans against the Palestinian Authority.