From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 14, 2026
PA’s Abbas blasts Israel for holding $5 billion in tax revenue belonging to Palestinians
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticizes Israel’s continued withholding of tax revenues that Israel has collected on behalf of the PA at border crossings since the Oslo Accords — saying the amount has reached $5 billion after a year without transfers.
“The continued holding of Palestinian Authority funds by Israel is an unprecedented event that violates the agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as international law,” Abbas says in an address to the Fatah party conference in Ramallah.
“All of this [money] is being withheld from Palestinian Authority employees and prisoners,” he adds.
This is only the eighth time the conference has been held since the movement’s founding — a forum in which representatives to the organization’s smaller governing bodies are elected.
Abbas also criticizes Israel over its actions in Gaza, saying: “What is happening in Gaza is an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
He also dismisses accusations of corruption against the Palestinian Authority, saying they were vague and unsubstantiated. “No one should just say ‘corruption’ and go to sleep. Give me the name of a specific person, and within five seconds he will be under investigation,” Abbas says.
Among those present in the audience are Zakaria Zubeidi, the former head of Fatah’s military wing in Jenin who had been serving a life sentence in Israel for involvement in attacks in which Israelis were killed and was released in the latest hostage deal, as well as Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi.
The Times of Israel Community.