Israel sends Palestinians over $1bn in withheld funds, says minister

Israel has released more than $1 billion in funds withheld from the Palestinian Authority (PA), a Palestinian minister said on Wednesday, weeks after coordination was renewed between the two sides. “The #Israeli government transfers all financial dues of the clearance to the account of the #Palestinian Authority, amounting to three billion and 768 million shekels,” civil affairs minister

Hussein Al-Sheikh wrote on Twitter, referring to taxes, including customs taxes, that the Jewish state collects on behalf of the PA.

In May, the Palestinians stopped coordination with Israel, with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas saying it was in response to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

Israel later put its annexation plans on hold, in return for an agreement to normalize ties with the UAE, announced in August. In halting the cooperation with Israel, the PA also stopped accepting transfer of taxes — particularly customs duties — collected by Israel on its behalf.

Earlier in the week, an Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the “security Cabinet approved transferring the money to the PA,” without specifying the amount.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Monday the Palestinians were “entitled” to the funds, expected

to relieve pressure on a Palestinian economy in the grips of a severe budgetary crisis.

Officials “will take everything they are owed. They have been patient for months and it’s only a matter of a little more time to make everything clear,” Shtayyeh said. Deprived of this income, the PA had to cut the salaries of its civil servants, at a time when the Palestinian economy had begun grappling with the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In a related development, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shortfall may still hinder payment in December, officials said on Wednesday. UNRWA finds itself in limbo after the US election — President Donald Trump ended all US payments, but while Palestinians hope President- elect Joe Biden’s administration will at least partially resume payments, that could take months.

The agency said last month it had run out of money to pay salaries after two years of funding cuts by the US and other donors.