Spain says it will help fund PA to make up for tax transfers withheld by Israel

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares says his country will work with Norway “to put a fund on the table” to help compensate the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for tax revenue being withheld by Israel.

“Israel is trying to annihilate the idea and possibility of a Palestinian state with bombs in Gaza in a veritable massacre,” Albares says on a visit to Egypt.

In February 2024, Norway said it would transfer tax funds to the PA that had been frozen for months because of a dispute with Israel regarding payments to officials in Gaza.

Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the PA, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and also helps pay for public services in Gaza.

Israel has periodically refused to make the transfers since Hamas’s October 7 attack, with far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying the funds support terror.