Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered the seizure on Sunday of around NIS 100 million ($26 million) of tax funds meant to be transferred to the Paleostinian Authority, saying that the money would instead be given to the families of terror victims.
The move was aimed at punishing the PA for the payments it has made to families of Paleostinian terrorists, Smotrich wrote in a post on X.
"The struggle against terror is not just a military struggle, but also a fight that includes a war against the wild incitement of the Paleostinian Authority and the terrorist funds which it directs from its budget to the families of terrorists," the head of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party wrote.
"We will continue to protect the safety of Israel’s citizens and fight with all the tools available to us against terrorism and its supporters."
Since the October 7 Hamas
..always the voice of sweet reason...terror onslaught and the outbreak of war with the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
terror group, Israel has withheld funds from the PA that were earmarked for Gaza. The money came from the tax revenue Jerusalem collects on behalf of the PA under the 1993 Oslo Accords.
Smotrich halted the transfer, worsening the authority’s already harsh financial crisis, in light of what he said was the PA’s support for Hamas’s October 7 terror onslaught and its actions against Israel on the international stage.
In May, Smotrich suspended transfers altogether, accusing the PA of working against Israel after three countries said they would recognize an independent Paleostinian state and as the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he would seek arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The financial pressure on the PA comes as economic and security conditions in the West Bank have deteriorated sharply, further eroding support for Abbas’s administration, which last held parliamentary elections 18 years ago and which many Paleostinians view as wholly corrupt.
The IDF has warned the government that cutting off funds to the PA could push the West Bank into another "intifada" — the name used for two