JERUSALEM: Israel’s cabinet approved a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA), officials said on Sunday.
Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Western-backed PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
But there have been constant wrangles over the arrangement, including Israel’s demand that the funds do not reach Hamas, which it and most of the West deem a terrorist group.
Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Western-backed PA in 2007 after a brief civil war, and two years after Israel withdrew settlers and military forces. Despite the Hamas takeover, many PA public sector employees in Gaza kept their jobs and continued to be paid with transferred tax revenues.
Israel is now at war in Gaza to wipe out Hamas after a cross-border attack by militants of the Palestinian Islamist movement on Oct. 7.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cabinet decision on the tax funds was supported by Norway and the United States, which will be a guarantor that the framework holds.
Netanyahu’s offices said the money, or any equivalent, will not be transferred “in any situation, except with the approval of the Israeli finance minister, and also not through a third party.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization said on Sunday it wanted the money in full and would not accept conditions that prevent it from paying its staff, including in Gaza.
“Any deductions from our financial rights or any conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the PA from paying our people in the Gaza Strip are rejected by us,” Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO, said on social media platform X.
A spokesman for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads a far-right, pro-settlement party, confirmed that Norway would hold the funds under the arrangement.
“Not one shekel will go to Gaza,” said Smotrich, who has long been opposed to transferring funds to the PA.
Israel OKs plan for Gaza tax funds to be held by Norway -officials
https://arab.news/r7e6a
Israel OKs plan for Gaza tax funds to be held by Norway -officials
- Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Western-backed PA
Morocco rolls out emergency aid during harsh winter weather
- A red alert was issued on Tuesday for snowfall of up to 80 cm (31 inches) in the High Atlas mountains and an orange alert was issued for rainfall of up to 50 mm across most of central and northern regions
RABAT: Morocco rolled out nationwide emergency aid to help tens of thousands of families affected by freezing temperatures, heavy rain and snow this winter, authorities said on Tuesday.
Flash floods following torrential rain killed 37 people in the coastal province of Safi on Sunday, damaging some 70 homes and shops in the old town, sweeping away cars and cutting roads. The relief operation will target 28 provinces affected by freezing temperatures, snow and rainfall with food supplies and blankets to be distributed to around 73,000 households, the authorities said.
A red alert was issued on Tuesday for snowfall of up to 80 cm (31 inches) in the High Atlas mountains and an orange alert was issued for rainfall of up to 50 mm across most of central and northern regions.
In the mountains of Ouarzazate, about 500 km (310 miles) southeast of the capital Rabat, snow has reached a depth of 50 cm and temperatures have dropped below zero at night.
Morocco is experiencing heavy rain and snowfall after seven years of drought that emptied some of its main reservoirs.
