Israel is considering handing over millions of dollars in withheld Palestinian tax funds to President Mahmoud Abbas in a move that could bolster him in the run-up to proposed elections.
An Israeli Finance Ministry official said Israel is holding about $500 million in Palestinian tax revenues.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the ruling faction would prefer the tax money to go through the Hamas-led government.
But he said under the circumstances they would welcome it through any channel to ease the hardship among ordinary Palestinians as well as civil servants.
Palestinian civil servants have not received their full salaries since Hamas came to power in March.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm reigned in Gaza today after a deadly gunbattle rattled a new ceasefire aimed at halting a wave of Palestinian factional fighting and avoiding a slide into civil war.
Armed men continued to patrol the streets and increased security was in place around Mr Abbas's office, which was the scene of fierce combat earlier in the week.
In the center of the city, shops opened and residents went on with their daily routine after four days of internecine violence that has left 13 people dead and dozens wounded.
In an overnight four-hour gunbattle with men from the ruling Hamas movement, two loyalists from Abbas's Fatah faction were killed only hours after the truce took effect at 9pm Irish time.
The two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, announced the truce last night.
Security chiefs for both sides said that they would pull their armed fighters off the streets and form joint operations with the official Palestinian security forces.
Reports say the new ceasefire seems more likely to hold than a previous one, which collapsed within 24 hours, because this time Hamas and Fatah have signed a formal document.
