Israel Confiscates Funds Transferred by Hamas, PA to Families of Palestinian Prisoners

Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
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Israel Confiscates Funds Transferred by Hamas, PA to Families of Palestinian Prisoners

Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)
Women demonstrate in Gaza in support of Palestinian prisoners (AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has signed seizure orders for Palestinian Authority and Hamas funds and property that had been transferred to family members of Palestinian martyrs and prisoners in Israel.

According to Jerusalem Post Newspaper, the four signed orders targeted funds transferred by both Hamas and the PA to Palestinians serving prison sentences in Israeli, as well as to family members of Palestinians who were killed during attacks.

The orders included the seizure of 187,000 shekels intended for the mother of a Palestinian who rammed his car into a crowd of people, killing a settler and a foreigner in Jerusalem in 2014.

“The seizure orders, which cumulatively amount to hundreds of thousands of shekels, were signed as part of an economic campaign by Israel against terrorism that includes the Defense Ministry’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing along with the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), the army, police, the foreign ministry, and other bodies,” said a statement by Gantz’s bureau.

His decision comes in light of a war declared by Israel on salaries of the families of Palestinian “martyrs and prisoners.”

Israel had earlier refused to pay the PA money that belonged to it, claiming it was using these funds to support and encourage “terrorism.”

The PA, however, rejected this claim and said it honored Palestinian heroes.

Meanwhile, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs denounced these orders.

It issued a statement stressing that they are “part of the escalation to loot more money belonging to families of the martyrs and prisoners.”

It affirmed that “that these funds are granted for these families to provide them with a minimum level of a decent life and allow them to overcome life challenges caused by the occupation itself.”

In late 2019, then Army Chief of Staff Naftali Bennett signed a decision to “confiscate the money transferred to 1948 prisoners and any other funds received by their families.”

The Commission urged the international community to break its silence and act immediately to put an end to the crimes committed by the occupation against families of the martyrs and prisoners.

This silence gives the occupation a green light to proceed and escalate with its crimes, it stressed.

Gantz previously Gantz issued a decree that would sanction banks in the West Bank for paying salaries for Palestinian prisoners and their families.



Turkish Soldier Killed in Clash in Northern Iraq, Defense Ministry Says 

A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
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Turkish Soldier Killed in Clash in Northern Iraq, Defense Ministry Says 

A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)
A member of the PKK carries an automatic rifle on a road in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, 22 June 2018 (AFP)

A Turkish soldier was killed on Monday in a clash with militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and Turkish airstrikes killed many militants, the Defense Ministry said.

The airstrikes also destroyed 21 PKK targets, the ministry said in a statement without elaborating.

Ankara uses the term "neutralized" to mean killed.

The soldier was killed in a clash in Gara region and Turkish air forces targeted PKK bases in Gara, Hakurk, Metina and Qandil, the ministry said.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Türkiye, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency.

Ankara has conducted years of cross-border military operations against militants that have left roughly half the Syrian territory bordering Türkiye and all of Iraqi territory bordering Türkiye controlled or overseen by Türkiye’s military.