Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued instructions to the Director of the Israeli Tax Authority, Shai Aharonovitch, to withhold 3.1 million shekels (more than 800 thousand dollars) from the Palestinian National Authority’s clearance funds in favor of compensation for Israelis whom he described as “victims of terrorism.”
Smotrich stated, in a tweet on his account on the .
Last month, Smotrich pledged not to allow Palestinian tax funds to be transferred to Gaza or to the families of Palestinian attackers, he said, hinting that he would resign from the government rather than pass the transfer.
Smotrich was then referring to reports of an agreement brokered by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to enable the Palestinian Authority to send money to its employees in Gaza by allowing Israel to verify the beneficiaries of the funds.
Israel collects taxes monthly on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in exchange for Palestinian imports of imported goods, and then settles debts owed by the Palestinians to Israeli water, electricity, and hospital companies, but it has increasingly refrained from doing so for various reasons, most notably the Palestinian Authority’s payment of salaries to those whom Israel condemns as “terrorists” and “terrorists.” Families of murdered terrorists.
It recently said that it would not allow the Palestinian Authority to transfer funds allocated for services and salaries in the Gaza Strip, claiming that the funds could reach the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), against which Israel is waging a war.
Last November, the Israeli mini-security cabinet approved a partial transfer of tax funds after deducting about $275 million allocated by the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, in addition to salaries, but the Palestinian Authority rejected this, raising fears of the possibility of its financial collapse and creating a state of chaos. In the West Bank.
