Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is moving to collect a debt that the Palestinian Authority has refused to pay for 15 years, amounting to 1.9 billion shekels ($515 million).
Smotrich informed the Cabinet on Sunday that the outstanding payments, which include 1.1 billion shekels ($310 million) owed to the Israel Electric Corporation, as well as debts with Israeli companies that supply fuel to the P.A., will be transferred in full, , Israel Hayom reported on Sunday.
The Norwegian trust that has served as an intermediary to transfer funds earmarked for the P.A. which were frozen in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in the northwestern Negev has been asked to release some 1.4 billion shekels ($379 million) that accumulated in the account between February and May 2024. Smotrich nixed the U.S.-brokered deal with Norway in May after Oslo declared its unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, and the funds have been accumulating in an Israeli bank account in recent months. (Read More)