RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has refused to receive a partial transfer of tax revenues after Israel withheld money allocated for the Gaza Strip.

“The Palestinian leadership refuses to receive the clearance revenues after Israel’s piracy of hundreds of millions of shekels and setting conditions for non-payment to the Gaza Strip,” Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)’s Executive Committee, said on social media platform X.

“The unity of the land and the people is a non-negotiable Palestinian decision, and the aspects of spending the Authority’s budget are determined by the Government of Palestine,” he added.

“We will share a living with our people in the beloved Strip, even if it’s just one dirham,” the Palestinian official added.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday that he has agreed to transfer Palestinian tax revenues after deducting Gaza's share.

The tax revenues – known in Palestine and Israel as maqasa – are collected by the Israeli government on behalf of the PA on Palestinian imports and exports and Israel in return earns a commission of 3%.

The revenues are estimated to total around $188 million every month and represent the main source of income for the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian government uses these funds to pay the salaries of public employees and retirees, who number 140,000 and 53,000, respectively.

Neither the PA nor Israel has specified the exact amount of money deducted from the tax revenues.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas a month ago.

At least 10,569 Palestinians, including 4,324 children and 2,823 women, have been killed since then. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.

*Writing by Ziad Aslan in Ankara