Palestinian Authority to Pay Reduced Salaries as Israel Blocks Funds

 Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh chairs a cabinet meeting in Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh chairs a cabinet meeting in Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
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Palestinian Authority to Pay Reduced Salaries as Israel Blocks Funds

 Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh chairs a cabinet meeting in Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh chairs a cabinet meeting in Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (AFP)

The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday it will pay public sector workers 60% of their December salaries this week as it grapples with the long running fallout of Israel's refusal to transfer tax funds earmarked for Gaza.

Funding to the Palestinian Authority, the body which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank, has been severely restricted by the months-long dispute over transferring tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Funding from international donors has also been squeezed, falling from 30% of the $6 billion annual budget to around 1%, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said.

"The funding situation of the Authority is very difficult," he said, following a meeting of the cabinet.

The funding dispute has been a source of friction between Israel and the Palestinians since the start of the war in Gaza in October, when Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refused to release all the funds, accusing the PA of supporting the Oct. 7 attack in Israel led by the Islamist movement Hamas.

Under interim peace accords signed in the early 1990s, Israel collects taxes on the Palestinians' behalf and typically transfers them to the PA monthly on the approval of the finance minister.

However, transfers have been stalled since October, when Smotrich withheld around 600 million shekels ($164.51 million) of the total 1 billion shekels due for transfer, prompting the Palestinian Authority, which says Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian territory, to refuse to accept any funds.

"We cannot accept conditions on our money. We will remain committed to the prisoners and martyrs and to our people in the Gaza Strip, not out of favor, but by virtue of our national, religious and moral responsibility," Shtayyeh said.

Although Gaza is controlled by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority continues to fund essential areas of the blockaded enclave's budget including paying the salaries of health workers.

The dispute comes ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has pressed Israel to resolve the budget dispute, which has left thousands of Palestinian public sector workers without pay for months.

The dispute over the Palestinian Authority budget coincides with a separate dispute over funding to UNWRA, the United Nations agency which pays for emergency relief for Palestinians.

Much of the UNWRA budget has been cut off since Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 Gaza workers of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack. The claims came as Israel faced a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Gaza, and after years of it calling for the agency to be disbanded.



Iran Mulls Iraqi Armed Factions’ Plans to Support Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel 

Members of a pro-Iran Iraq faction burn an Israeli flag during a rally in Baghdad. (AP)
Members of a pro-Iran Iraq faction burn an Israeli flag during a rally in Baghdad. (AP)
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Iran Mulls Iraqi Armed Factions’ Plans to Support Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel 

Members of a pro-Iran Iraq faction burn an Israeli flag during a rally in Baghdad. (AP)
Members of a pro-Iran Iraq faction burn an Israeli flag during a rally in Baghdad. (AP)

Leaders of various Iraqi armed factions are studying “preliminary” plans to support the Hezbollah party in Lebanon should a war erupt between it and Israel.

The plans are not final because Hezbollah and Iran have yet to approve them, four informed sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

They revealed that a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officer met in Baghdad with leaders of the pro-Iran Coordination Framework and representatives of Tehran-aligned armed factions to discuss their proposals to support Hezbollah against Israel.

On June 13, the factions told Iran they were prepared to fight alongside Hezbollah should a broader conflict erupt in the region over the Israeli war on Gaza, said Iraqi sources.

The sources added that the meeting was held after intense talks between the leaders of the factions about the need to “head to the Lebanon front.” The IRGC saw that it was “necessary to listen to their plans and watch them closely.”

They revealed that the IRGC “agreed to attend the meeting at the pressing demand of Hezbollah in Lebanon because it was necessary to observe the reaction of Iraqi factions, which don’t always have the most accurate assessments.”

Hezbollah ultimately rejected the Iraqi factions’ offer for their fighters to take part in any potential war.

Asharq Al-Awsat elaborated on this issue in a June 20 report. Hezbollah said it had reservations over the involvement of the Iraqi factions in Lebanon due to the sensitive situation in the country and various considerations on the field.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said: “The resistance in Lebanon received offers from armed factions leaders in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and others to send tens of thousands of fighters to help Hezbollah.”

“We are grateful, but we already have large numbers of our own,” he added.

Supply route

The rejection did not deter the Iraqi factions from making their plans, which include supplying Hezbollah with weapons, rockets, drones and fighters “when necessary.”

Two sources who attended the Baghdad meeting said Tehran will have the final say over these plans and it has to take political considerations into account.

The meeting was attended by Asaib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazali, head of the Popular Mobilization Forces Falih Al-Fayyadh, leaders of the Nujaba movement, Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada and other armed factions.

The IRGC officer listened to various proposals, including one by an armed faction that said “all of its fighters were ready to head to southern Lebanon and act as the first line of defense of Hezbollah against Israel.”

The Iranian officer deemed the proposal “too enthusiastic at the moment.” The situation in Lebanon must be taken into consideration, he added.

Other faction leaders proposed setting up supply routes to Hezbollah to send rockets and drones to the South. They even suggested using Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport to transfer these weapons swiftly.

Just days ago, Britain's The Telegraph claimed that Hezbollah was storing rockets at the airport, prompting outrage from Lebanon’s caretaker Minister of Public Works Ali Hamieh, who said the report “damages the image of the airport.”

The proposal was dismissed by the Iranian officer, saying Hezbollah fears that Israel may strike the airport now that “all eyes are on it,” revealed the sources.

Attention then shifted to Syria. A source from the Kataib Hezbollah told Asharq Al-Awsat that a supply route needs the expertise of factions active in Syria and secret warehouses that would not be targeted by Israeli strikes.

One proposal suggested the redeployment of Iraqi factions in Syria in order to support Hezbollah in Lebanon. Kataib Hezbollah said weapons would be transferred by a single truck, instead of a convoy, to avoid attracting Israel’s attention.

On June 22, an “unknown” strike targeted a rocket and drone shipment by a pro-Iran Iraqi faction in Syria’s Alboukamal region bordering Iraq.

Objection

At the Baghdad meeting, Asaib Ahl al-Haq leader Qais al-Khazali objected to all plans on taking the fight to Lebanon, saying: “The best thing we can offer Hezbollah is target American interests in Iraq.”

The position created sharp differences between the representatives of the factions, with an argument ensuing in front of the Iranian officer, said the source.

The officer then called on the factions against acting rashly and to wait for the approval from Tehran, which is currently involved in political negotiations.

Soon after the meeting, Khazali appeared in a televised address on Monday to declare: “America should know that all of its interests in the region and Iraq are now targets and in danger.”

Iran’s reservations over the Iraqi plans are in line with remarks by Israel's national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, who said on Tuesday that Israel will spend the coming weeks trying to resolve the conflict with Hezbollah and would prefer a diplomatic solution, reported Reuters.

The four sources said the Iranians, after consulting with Hezbollah, did not approve of any of the Iraqi plans, but they were intrigued with the supply route proposal, whether a broader war erupts or not.