World
Norway to help transfer tax funds frozen by Israel to Palestinian Authority
Israel has been withholding tax revenues earmarked for the PA amid Tel Aviv’s brutal war on Gaza since October 7.
Norway says it will help facilitate the transfer of tax revenues, collected by Israel and bound for the Palestinian Authority (PA), in order to prevent the financial collapse of the authority that partially governs the occupied West Bank.
“The Palestinian Authority will be able to pay salaries, thus making it possible to continue to provide essential services to the Palestinian population, keep schools open, and ensure that health workers are paid,” the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Sunday.
“This is critical to promoting stability in the region and for the Palestinian Authority to have legitimacy among its people,” it added.
Israel collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA under the Oslo accords in 1994, but in November it froze funds meant for Palestinians in Gaza.
The PA was expelled from the Gaza Strip in 2007, but it still pays the salaries of many of its public sector employees. Israel says the fund might fall into the hands of Hamas, which governs Gaza.
Tel Aviv, however, later agreed to transfer the tax revenues to the PA deducting the amount meant for Gaza. In response, the PA refused to accept a partial transfer saying it would not accept conditions that prevented it from paying its staff. It is estimated that some 30 percent of its budget is spent in Gaza.
Israel launched a devastating military offensive in Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led, October 7 attack that left at least 1,139 people dead inside Israel. About 240 people were taken captives out of which more than 100 people were released as part of a brief truce in November.
As a dire economic crisis exacerbated across the occupied West Bank, the Israeli cabinet approved in January a plan for frozen tax funds earmarked for the Strip to be held by Norway instead of transferred to the PA.
Norway is facilitating an arrangement that will enable the Palestinian Authority to receive clearance revenues that Israel collects on its behalf.
Absent these resources, Palestinian institutions could fall apart, even in the West Bank.
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According to Sunday’s statement, Palestinian and Israeli officials agreed that Norway would serve as an intermediary for holding revenues that Israel has so far withheld.
“The Palestinian Authority is then willing to accept the other funds,” Norway said. The portion of the revenue Norway would keep equals the portion that Israel estimates for Gaza, said a Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
Accessing the revenue is key to the survival of the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. It is also central to the United States’ post-war vision which includes a role for the PA in the administration of Gaza.
While the decision will allow some economic relief for Palestinians, the agreement reflects the US and Norway’s collusion with Israel’s far-right government, Mouin Rabbani, the co-editor of the Jadaliyya website, told Al Jazeera.
“The US and Norway, while applauding themselves for having saved the PA from bankruptcy, are now active partners not only with Israel but with its far-right finance ministry and allowing Israel to get away with not fulfilling its treaty obligations,” Rabbani said.
“It’s particularly unfortunate that Norway rather than mobilising the international community to compel Israel to fulfil its treaty obligations and simply transfer the entire amount on a monthly basis to the PA is prepared to play this role and withhold money for the PA which will be dispersed only with [Bezalel] Smotrich’s personal approval,” Rabbani said, referring the Israeli far-right finance minister.
The issue of money transfer has been a source of friction within the Israeli government with some ministers calling for the funds to be distributed to avoid further destabilising the occupied West Bank.
Since the start of the war, violence has spiked to unprecedented levels as Israeli forces have been conducting nearly daily raids and mass arrest campaigns in cities and towns across the Palestinian territory.
Israeli soldiers have killed at least 358 Palestinians since October 7, UN figures show. More than 6,000 have been arrested according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.
World
Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war
World
Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’
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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.
Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”
“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.
As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.
TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.
“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.
“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.
“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.
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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.
“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.
World
Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM
Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.
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As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.
EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.
Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.
“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”
On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.
“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.
“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”
Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”
“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.
When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”
On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.
Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.
“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET
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