Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will sign a one-month extension to an agreement allowing Israeli banks to correspond with Palestinian ones later today, hours before the deal was set to expire, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
The US and its Western allies have been pressing Israel to extend the corresponding banking deal by a year, fearing the collapse of the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.
Smotrich has long spoken in favor of collapsing the Palestinian Authority. The one-month extension allows the far-right minister to keep his options open depending on who wins the presidential election next week, the Israeli official says, confirming reporting in the Walla news site.
The decision also allows Israel to use a further extension of the banking agreement as leverage as the Biden administration weighs steps to advance Palestinian statehood during the lame-duck period, the official adds.
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 31, 2024
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