Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh said “any deduction from our financial rights” would be rejected.
Taxes collected by Israel and destined for Gaza will be held in Norway, instead of being sent to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited autonomy in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, under a plan approved by Israeli officials.
“The frozen funds will not be transferred to the Palestinian Authority, but will remain in the hands of a third country,” said a statement released Sunday by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office.
“Money or its consideration will not be transferred under any circumstances except with the approval of the Minister of Finance of Israel, not even through a third party,” he said.
Under an agreement reached in the 1990s, Israel collects taxes on behalf of Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority pending approval from the Finance Ministry.
Even though the PA was driven out of the Gaza Strip in 2007, many of its public sector employees in the enclave kept their jobs and continued to be paid from transferred tax revenues.
But nearly a month after the October 7 attack – when Hamas fighters launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Tel Aviv Tribune tally based on statistics Israeli authorities, and taking around 240 prisoners – the Israeli authorities decided to withhold the planned funds. for the Gaza Strip.
In response to the monetary deduction, the Palestinian Authority refused to accept a partial transfer of money.
“We reject any deduction from our financial rights or any conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the PA from paying our citizens in the Gaza Strip,” senior PA official Hussein al-Sheikh said on X.
“We call on the international community to stop this behavior based on piracy and theft of the Palestinian people’s money and to force Israel to transfer all our money,” he added.
Nour Odeh, a political analyst based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, said Israel was using its influence over tax revenues to “punish” and “weaken” the Palestinian Authority.
“This is Israel’s way of asserting its control over everything, including the Palestinian Authority’s ability to function. It is not clear whether the PA would be willing to accept any conditions, as it would be humiliating to go back on its promise not to take the revenue by deducting Gaza’s share,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“(Withholding income) will have a huge impact because those employed by the Palestinian Authority will not receive their salaries at a time when many are starving due to Israel’s siege and war – people need this money to survive. »
Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was the only member of the government to oppose the plan to send funds to Norway.
Ben-Gvir said the plan does not guarantee that money will not be transferred to Gaza.
“Last week they started moving trucks of flour and now they are making a decision that does not guarantee that the money will not reach the Nazis from Gaza,” the far-right leader said on X, adding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “constantly” moving “the red line.”
The issue has been a source of friction within Israel’s war cabinet, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calling for funds to be distributed to maintain stability in the occupied West Bank.
Violence there has increased since the start of the war, amid almost daily raids and campaigns of mass arrests in towns and villages by Israeli forces.
Since then, at least 319 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers, according to U.N. figures, and more than 6,000 have been arrested, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Society advocacy group.