On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a plan that would allow the transfer of frozen Palestinian tax funds to another country, while reserving the right to determine when the funds would be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.
Under the temporary peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli Ministry of Finance collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Authority, but there are ongoing disagreements between the two sides regarding this arrangement, and since the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation – launched by the Palestinian resistance against the occupation – Israel has intended to stop Transferring these funds, given that a portion of them reaches the Authority’s employees in the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Cabinet decision has the support of Norway and the United States, which will be the guarantor of the framework.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority reported that the Israeli Cabinet agreed to transfer funds to the Palestinian Authority via Norway. She pointed out that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was the only one who voted against the plan to transfer funds to the Palestinian Authority, considering that the plan does not provide ministers with guarantees that funds will not be transferred to Gaza.
The Palestinian Authority did not immediately comment on what was reported by the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation.
Last Friday, the Commission revealed an initial Israeli agreement between Netanyahu and his Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, to transfer tax funds to the Palestinian Authority, via a third country.
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in exchange for Palestinian imports of imported goods. Israel is supposed to transfer funds to the Authority monthly, averaging 750 to 800 million shekels (about 190 million dollars), of which 270 million shekels (about 190 million dollars) are transferred to the Gaza Strip under normal circumstances. 75 million dollars).
The funds allocated to Gaza are distributed at approximately 170 million shekels for the salaries of Authority employees in the Strip, and 100 million shekels to pay the fuel bill for the Gaza power station.
The US administration has repeatedly called on Israel during the past months to accelerate the transfer of tax funds to the Authority. On January 4, Washington warned Israel that failure to transfer tax funds to the Authority would lead to its collapse, as it is its main source of income. It also warned of a violent escalation in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority relies on these funds to pay the salaries of its employees, as the payment of salaries was delayed for 3 months, namely October, November, and December 2023, while half of the salary was paid to the employees according to an agreement with local banks.
Since the seventh of last October, the occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has caused the death of more than 25,000 Palestinians and the wounding of about 63,000 others, a humanitarian and health disaster, and caused the displacement of about 1.9 million people, in addition to major destruction of buildings and infrastructure. .