Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said, "The bloody war on the ground is being completed by Israel by piracy of the money of our Palestinian people, as the occupation practices political and financial blackmail to pressure the Palestinian leadership to stop transferring the Gaza Strip's allocations of salaries for medical staff, teachers, relief staff, and others, which amount to about 275 million shekels per month, and continues to deduct the same amount from the clearance funds since last October, in an effort to continue obstructing the unification of the two parts of the homeland."

He added at the opening of the weekly government session held today, Tuesday: "The Israeli government continues the deductions related to the allocations for the families of martyrs and prisoners that began in February 2019, and their value has reached about 3.5 billion shekels so far. Despite these deductions, the Palestinian Authority continues to fulfill its obligations towards these categories of our people, so the financial burden becomes doubled, as Israel deducts similar amounts from the clearance revenues to what the Palestinian Authority pays to these categories."

In another context, the Council of Ministers condemned the continued attacks by armed settlers on our people, the most recent of which was last night on villages south of Bethlehem, in Masafer Yatta, and the Jordan Valley, and the bombing of the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm by the occupation army’s aircraft, in conjunction with the targeting and bombing of citizens’ homes in Rafah, Khan Yunis, and the entire Gaza Strip.

The Cabinet warned of the widening circle of Israeli escalation day after day; in addition to the bloody war on the Gaza Strip, settler attacks are escalating in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

He stressed that greater international efforts must be exerted to achieve justice for the Palestinian cause and implement international legitimacy resolutions, and that there are practical steps on our part to preserve our national achievements.

The Prime Minister reviewed the latest developments in the file of financial extortion by Israel, as the repercussions of the Israeli piracy of our money have reached a dangerous level, after the Israeli Knesset recently approved the so-called “Law to Compensate the Families of Israeli Killed”, which entered into force at the beginning of last June.

He said: “This new law allows for compensation for Israeli families from the clearance revenues with imaginary amounts reaching 10 million shekels for the family of each Israeli killed, and deducting no less than 5 million shekels as compensation for the wounded, without specifying the extent of the injury, as the newly approved compensation law holds the Palestinian National Authority indirectly responsible for all operations that targeted Israelis since October 7 until now, and retroactively.”

In this regard, he explained that according to lawyers’ reports, there are currently 195 lawsuits filed by the families of the aforementioned individuals, demanding compensation worth more than 5 billion shekels, in addition to cases filed by agents against the Palestinian National Authority, who were compensated with tens of millions of shekels deducted from the clearing funds.”

Mustafa stressed that the President personally, and alongside him the government, is leading legal, political and diplomatic efforts to pressure towards stopping the aggression against our people in the first place, stopping and cancelling these unjust laws, and recovering our people’s withheld funds.

On the other hand, the Prime Minister said: “The government has taken actual measures to reduce public expenditures and mitigate the financial impact of what is happening through new and serious steps for administrative and financial reform, including reducing expenditures in the 2024 budget by 5%, in addition to canceling and merging the work of some government institutions, handing over some rented buildings, and stopping appointments and public procurement except for necessary needs, and other successive reform steps will follow.”

The Council of Ministers, based on national responsibility, called on everyone to cooperate, unite and redouble efforts to meet the priorities and needs of our people as much as possible, in light of the war of extermination our people are facing in the Gaza Strip and the systematic targeting in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, to fight our national project for independence and freedom. It stressed that the difficult living conditions of our people in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, should not distract us from preparing and contributing to the relief of our afflicted people in the beloved Gaza Strip.

The Council of Ministers took a number of administrative and procedural decisions that will be published later on the Council of Ministers’ website.