Israel placed partial freeze on tax revenue to Palestine over militant support

In response to the Palestinian Authority's (PA) funding of militants, Israeli ministers retained the partial tax income freeze in place on Sunday, an official said. According to legislation from 2018, the 600 million shekels ($176 million) withheld would equal the amount the PA gave to the attackers' families in 2017.

Israel transfers the roughly $190 million a month it receives in customs taxes from commodities passing through Israeli ports on their way to Palestinian marketplaces to the PA. The Palestinians protested the law's implementation in 2019 by delaying receiving all aid for eight months. Israel claims that the money given to the attackers' families encourages more assaults.

For its part, the PA claims that the payments constitute welfare for families who have lost their primary earner. The so-called "security cabinet" of Israel's ministers gave their approval for the freeze to remain in place, an Israeli official told AFP.

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Hussein Al Sheikh, a top PA official, called Israel's action "money piracy" in response to the action. The "daily escalation in our cities, villages, and camps" will be exacerbated by Israel's "strategy of the financial blockade and steal(-ing) our money," he tweeted.

(with inputs from agencies)