Israel sends PA over $1b in withheld funds: Minister

RAMALLAH: Israel has released more than $1 billion in funds withheld from the Palestinian Authority (PA), a Palestinian minister said Wednesday, two weeks ater coordination between the sides was renewed.

“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 Twiter.

He was referring to taxes, including customs duties that Israel 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 normalise ties with the United Arab Emirates, announced in August.

In halting the cooperation with Israel, the PA also stopped accepting the transfer of taxes — particularly customs duties — collected by Israel on its behalf.

The PA announced last month that it would restore coordination with Israel.

Earlier this week, an Israeli official said 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 had “a right” to the funds, expected to relieve pressure on a Palestinian economy in the grips of a severe budgetary crisis. Employees “will take everything they are owed. They have been patient for months and it’s only a mater of a litle more time to make everything clear,” Shtayyeh said.

Separately, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shorfall may still hinder payment in December, officials said on Wednesday.

Adnan Abu Hasna, an UNRWA spokesman in Gaza, said the November salary payments were made possible only by a $20 million loan from the United Nations, $12 million in new pledges and an advance from Sweden on its 2021 contribution.