The United Nations said on Thursday that the Palestinian people were facing "unprecedented challenges" despite the temporary containment of tensions in Gaza.
This came in a report issued by the Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. The United Nations said that despite the relative calm between Gaza and Israel, "the range of challenges facing the Palestinian people and the government is unprecedented." The report pointed out that a major financial crisis, coupled with growing humanitarian needs, and the absence of political prospects for a negotiated solution, threaten the stability of the West Bank and the continued efforts to build a Palestinian state itself. "Particularly worrying is the financial crisis caused by Israel´s decision to partially retain 6 per cent of the clearance revenue and the subsequent Palestinian decision not to accept it," the report noted. The Palestinian government faces a financial crisis since 2018, which increased in February due to its refusal to receive the clearing money from Israel, after the implementation of the last cut, representing the allocations of prisoners and the families of the martyrs. On February 17, the Israeli government decided to hold NIS 502 million (about $ 138 million) of Palestinian clearing funds in response to the Palestinian Authority´s financial allocations to the editors and families of detainees in Israeli jails and the families of the martyrs. Clearance revenue is the money collected by Tel Aviv on behalf of the Palestinians on goods and goods received or exported to and from Palestine across international borders, with an average monthly value of $ 175 million. Under the Paris Economic Protocol signed between Palestine and the Israeli occupation in 1994, the latter collects taxes on goods passing through its crossings into the Palestinian territories and transfers them monthly to the government in Ramallah.
