Israel agreed Friday to release hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue owed to the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian official told the Times of Israel Saturday, after Jerusalem had since early January delayed the transfer of funds as a punitive measure following the Palestinian initiative to join the International Criminal Court.
The agreement was reached following a meeting between the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein a-Sheikh with the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai.
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for Middle East peace efforts, welcomed the deal as an important step “in the right direction.”
Last month, Israel indicated it would release the frozen funds, but the payment remained held up over a dispute regarding the size of the PA’s unpaid electric bill. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refused to have Israel deduct electricity costs and said that if the issue remained unresolved, he would turn to The Hague.
According to a-Sheikh, Israel will transfer the tax monies owed for the months of March and April without deducting the PA’s debt due for electricity, water and medical services. A-Sheikh added that the rest of the money owed by Israel for the months of December to February would be transferred with a deduction of the said costs.
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The transfer of about $471 million from Israel to the PA will take place Sunday or Monday, a-Sheikh said.
A special committee comprised of Israeli and Palestinian officials is set to convene in the near future in order to resolve all remaining debt claims between the two sides, he added.
Under an economic agreement signed in 1994, Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority tens of millions of dollars each month in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports. Israel has imposed a freeze on the transfer in the past, though the sanction has rarely lasted more than one or two months.
Blocking the money prevents the PA from paying its roughly 180,000 employees, which costs almost $200 million a month.
The Palestinians officially joined the ICC on April 1. They have said they intend to pursue war crimes allegedly committed by Israel during last summer’s war in Gaza, as well as charges over Israel’s settlement building policy.
AFP and Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
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