Israel OKs plan for Gaza tax funds to be held by Norway -officials

Israel's cabinet approved a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for Gaza to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the Palestinian Authority, officials said.

Under interim peace accords reached in the 1990s, Israel's finance ministry collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the Palestinian Authority, which exercises self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation responded saying it wanted the money in full and would not accept conditions that prevent it from paying its staff, including in Gaza.

"Any deductions from our financial rights or any conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the PA from paying our people in the Gaza Strip are rejected by us," Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO, said on social media platform X.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cabinet decision on the tax funds was supported by Norway and the United States, which will be a guarantor that the framework holds.

A spokesman for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who heads a far-right, pro-settlement party, confirmed that Norway would hold the funds under the arrangement.

"Not one shekel will go to Gaza," said Smotrich, who has long been opposed to transferring funds to the PA.

Israel is now conducting relentless attacks in Palestine's Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians in their homes and hospitals, including women and children, after a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7.