A Hamas-run bank became operational in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, but the Palestinian Monetary Authority said it was an illegal institute.

The National Islamic Bank "is open today before its clients," said Alaa al-Refaty, the director of the bank.

According to him, Hamas, through this bank, will pay April salaries for some 6,000 employees in its government in addition to some officials.

"The bank will deposit payments for the government's civil sector employees," al-Refaty said, adding his bank "doesn't suffer from lack of cash either in Shekel or (US) dollar and this will enable us to win the trust of the people and the clients."

Most of the banks that work in the Gaza Strip suffer from liquidity shortage due to Israeli restrictions on cash shipments to Gaza. Hamas is known to bring in bags of money through underground tunnels between Gaza and Egypt.

The other Palestinian banks and branches of Arab banks don't deal with Hamas administration which was formed after the Islamic movement seized control of the coastal Strip in 2007.

Hamas used to pay for its servants through the post office across the strip.