According to the State Department, the United States has made it clear to Israel that the funds belong to the Palestinians.
Israel continued its attacks on Gaza on Friday, while truce negotiations with the extremist organization Hamas stalled. According to eyewitnesses, Israel carried out strikes on several targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, and the strikes were concentrated in the central parts of the strip.
On Thursday, the United States condemned Israel’s finance minister of Bezalel Smotrich the decision to direct the tax revenues collected from the Palestinian territories to the families of people they described as victims of terrorism.
A spokesperson for the US State Department by Matthew Miller according to Smotrich’s actions are not appropriate.
– We have made it quite clear to the Israeli government that these funds belong to the Palestinians, Miller told reporters.
– They should be transferred to the Palestinian Authority immediately. They should not have been arrested. They should not be delayed, he continued and described Smotrich’s decision as exceptionally wrong.
The far-right Smotrich announced the fate of a sum of about 35 million dollars on social media. He claimed that the Palestinian Authority encourages terrorism by paying “the families of terrorists, prisoners and released prisoners” and justified his own actions with this claim.
– In accordance with the judgments that offered compensation to the victims of terrorism, we will reimburse the corresponding amounts from the funds of the Palestinian Authority and transfer the awarded money to the relatives of the victims of terrorism, Smotrich said.
Israel suspended transfers of tax revenues
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority in accordance with the peace agreement signed in the 1990s. The Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Qatari media al-Jazeera according to which Israel deducts three percent of the collected Palestinian tax funds as a collection fee. Total revenues are estimated to be around $220 million per month, and tax revenue is the main source of income for the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has suspended the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinians after Hamas attacked Israel in early October.