Yet, throughout the war Hamas has managed to continue to use a secret cash-based payment system to pay 30,000 civil servants' salaries totalling $7m (£5.3m). The BBC has spoken to three civil servants who have confirmed they have received nearly $300 each within the last week. It's believed they are among tens of thousands of employees who have continued to receive a maximum of just over 20% of their pre-war salary every 10 weeks. Amid soaring inflation, the token salary - a fraction of the full amount - is causing rising resentment among the party faithful.

Severe food shortages – which aid agencies blame on Israeli restrictions - and rising cases of acute malnutrition continue in Gaza, where a kilogramme of flour in recent weeks has cost as much as $80 - an all-time high. With no functioning banking system in Gaza, even receiving the salary is complex and at times, dangerous. Israel regularly identifies and targets Hamas salary distributors, seeking to disrupt the group's ability to govern. Employees, from police officers to tax officials, often receive an encrypted message on their own phones or their spouses' instructing them to go to a specific location at a specific time to "meet a friend for tea". At the meeting point, the employee is approached by a man - or occasionally a woman - who discreetly hands over a sealed envelope containing the money before vanishing without further interaction. An employee at the Hamas Ministry of Religious Affairs, who doesn't want to give his name for safety reasons, described the dangers involved in collecting his wages.

"Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return," he said. "On several occasions, Israeli strikes have hit the salary distribution points. I survived one that targeted a busy market in Gaza City."Alaa, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, is a schoolteacher employed by the Hamas-run government and the sole provider for a family of six. (BBC)