Some 40,000 Palestinian teachers and other education sector employees will end a two-month-long strike on Tuesday after securing assurances of downpayments on their salaries, officials said.
Most of the teachers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip will receive a 1,000 shekel ($231.2) downpayment on Tuesday with the rest of the money before the end of the month, the Education Minister said.
The teachers have been on strike since the start of the new school year on September 2.
Bassam Zakarneh, head of the government employees' union, said that despite the teachers' suspension of their strike, other public sector workers would not return to work.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian government employees went on strike in the West Bank and Gaza on September 2 in protest against unpaid salaries and the perceived failings of the Hamas-led government.
Government wages have been largely unpaid since Hamas took power in March, prompting Western countries to cut off aid to the government because it is officially sworn to Israel's destruction.
"Teachers will return to the school starting tomorrow (Tuesday). They will be paid 1,000 shekels immediately and the outstanding amount will be paid not later than November 20," Education Minister Naser al-Shaer said.
The average salary of a Palestinian teacher is under 3,000 shekels ($693.62).
Shaer said the government was working on a formula to secure backpayments of salaries not paid since an international embargo on aid to the Palestinian Authority was imposed after Hamas took power.
"Education is one of the most pressing issues and we must deal with it first," Shaer said.
The government employees' strike was the first major work stoppage of its kind since Hamas came to power and amounted to a challenge to the government's authority by the rival Fatah movement, which strongly backed the strike.
Most schools across the West Bank, home to 2.4 million Palestinians, were closed on the first day of the new academic year, with teachers among the strongest adherents to the open-ended action, called for by a major workers' union.
Government offices were also shuttered as a large portion of the government's 165,000 employees went along with the protest.
Most government workers are affiliated to Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in a power struggle with Hamas since the group won elections in January.
The lack of funds thrust the Hamas-led authority into a crisis, with it effectively unable to perform its duties.
Haniyeh and Abbas held talks on Monday over the possibility of forming a unity government, which might help put an end to the crisis.