Gaza City  - Around 70,000 Palestinian Authority (PA) security and civil servants got their salaries paid Thursday night after Israel agreed to transfer 100 million shekels (25 million dollars) to the Gaza Strip.

The PA Monetary Authority in the West Bank said in a statement sent to reporters that the Israeli currency arrived in Gaza Thursday evening.

Israel had previously refused to allow Israeli money into Gaza, and closed all commercial crossings between Gaza and Israel, following a renewal of homemade rockets attacks by Gaza militants on southern Israel.

But in an about face under international pressure, Israel decided to transfer the cash to the Gaza Strip after all. The currency transfer was approved by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak after an urgent request by acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who met with Barak in Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

Palestinian security sources in Gaza said the Israeli money was transferred from Israeli trucks to Palestinian trucks and sent immediately to Gaza Strip banks to enable the PA employees to get their November pay.

Witnesses in Gaza said that tens of thousands of PA civil servants stood in long queues in front of the banks, which decided to reopen in spite of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha that only ends Thursday night.

The renewal of rockets attacks came after the Israeli army carried out early last month a series of limited ground operations near the fence between Gaza Strip borders and Israel.

However, Israel, which tightened the blockade and didn't allow food and fuels supplies into the poor and densely populated enclave, had decided to ease it three days ago, following international pressure on the Jewish state.

In the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the Islamic Hamas movement, official estimates say that there are around 70,000 civil and military servants who receive their monthly salaries directly from Ramallah.

Following Hamas' Gaza takeover by force in mid June of last year, President Mahmoud Abbas ordered all security workers and civil servants not to go to work at ministries and security forces buildings controlled by Hamas. (dpa)