Israel seizes more Palestinian funds amid Gaza war
The Israeli regime has confiscated more funds belonging to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the government that controls the West Bank and represents the Palestinians in the international community, amid the war in Gaza.
Israel's extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the seizure of 100 million shekels ($26 million) of tax funds belonging to the Palestinians after his ministry accused the PA in a statement late on Sunday of supporting attacks against the regime.
It is a fifth time that Israel confiscates tax funds that it collects on behalf of the PA on goods imported into the occupied West Bank from or via Israeli-controlled lands.
The funds constitute a major part of finances needed by the PA to pay salaries to workers in the West Bank.
Israel has imposed heavy economic restrictions on the Palestinians both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank since it launched a brutal war on Gaza in October.
Smotrich said on Monday on his X page that the withholding of Palestinian funds is a strategy meant to prevent the Palestinians from setting up their own independent state.
He said that the Israelis should continue to block efforts aimed at the creation of a Palestinian state by expanding settlements in the West Bank that are viewed as illegal by the international community.
“We are working on the ground to remove this threat [of a Palestinian state] ... by strengthening settlement through construction ... and maintaining complete Israeli control over the area,” said the extremist minister.
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