The Palestinian Minister of Finance said that the process of transferring clearing funds from Norway has not yet been completed (French)
Palestinian Finance Minister Shukri Bishara said that Israel deducted about 956 million shekels ($295 million) from Palestinian clearance funds during the last quarter of 2023, compared to what the Palestinian government was spending in the besieged Gaza Strip.
This came at a conference by the Minister of Finance today, Wednesday, to present the reality of the Palestinian government’s public finances over the past year and the developments in the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
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Bishara said that his ministry has not received the clearing funds since last October (the start of the war on Gaza), and we have not finalized the money transfer arrangements with the Norwegian and Israeli sides, and there are currently ongoing negotiations, according to him.
Last January, Israel agreed to transfer the clearance funds to the Palestinian side in exchange for deducting what the Gaza Strip was receiving from it to the State of Norway.
Before the war, the Palestinian government transferred an average of 270 million shekels ($75 million) per month to Gaza, part of which represented the salary bill for government employees and retirees in Ramallah, and another part to finance the electricity consumed in the Strip.
2023 expenses
Bishara said, "In the entire year of 2023, the total Palestinian financial expenditures amounted to $6 billion, an increase of 4.1% compared to 2022, while revenues amounted to $5.4 billion, an increase of 4.3% on an annual basis."
He continued, "The total Israeli deductions from clearing funds from debts to Israeli parties, in exchange for prisoner allocations, and in exchange for what we transferred to Gaza amounted to 581 million dollars during 2023."
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority for Palestinian imports on imported goods and calls them “clearance funds,” with a monthly average of $220 million.
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority against Palestinian imports of imported goods and calls them “clearance funds,” with a monthly average of $220 million.
The Palestinian Authority relies on clearing funds to pay the salaries of its employees, and without them it will not be able to fulfill its obligations towards the wage bill and expenses of government institutions.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving tens of thousands of civilian casualties, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure.
Source: Anadolu Agency