Palestinian Public Sector Salaries Squeezed as Israel Withholds Tax Revenue

 Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
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Palestinian Public Sector Salaries Squeezed as Israel Withholds Tax Revenue

 Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinian women shop at a roadside stand near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, May 3, 2024. (Reuters)

The Palestinian Authority said on Sunday the Israeli finance ministry was continuing to withhold tax revenues and as a result only a part of public sector salaries would be paid this week, keeping up a squeeze on payrolls that has lasted for months.

The Authority said it would pay Palestinian public sector employees 50% of their March salaries on Tuesday, after Israel withheld a transfer due for the month of April.

It said the arrears would be paid once the financial situation allowed.

The Israeli finance ministry confirmed it had been decided not to transfer tax revenues this month but declined to provide details.

The squeeze on public sector salaries, and the fact that tens of thousands of Palestinians have been prevented from working in Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in October, have added to growing economic hardship in the occupied West Bank.

Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the West Bank on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and transfers the revenue to Ramallah under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.

But since the Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in Gaza.

Although the Hamas movement wrested control of Gaza from the rival Fatah faction in 2007, the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, continues to fund some health and education services in the enclave.



WHO Chief Says He Was at Yemen Airport as Israeli Bombs Fell Nearby

FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
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WHO Chief Says He Was at Yemen Airport as Israeli Bombs Fell Nearby

FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
FILE: A crater is seen on the tarmac of the international airport of Yemen's capital Sanaa, April 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

A wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport Thursday just as the World Health Organization’s director-general said he was about to board a flight there. One of the UN plane’s crew was wounded, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen's Houthis at the international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, alleging they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials, The AP reported.

UN associate spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay said the rest of the U.N. team left the airport and are “safe and sound” in Sanaa, and the injured crew member is being treated in a hospital, she said.

Last week, Israeli jets bombed Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. The US military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days.

Israel's latest wave of strikes in Yemen follows several days of Houthi launches setting off air-raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's war in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its count.