RAMALLAH, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Ishtaye on Monday said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has received a payment of tax revenues collected by Israel on its behalf after rejecting it for eight months.
"We have received a payment of 1.5 billion Israeli new shekels (about 430 million U.S. dollars) and our debts to banks reached 480 million dollars, which is a serious cash-flow problem," Ishtaye said in the opening of his weekly cabinet meeting.
The PA hoped that the financial crisis would have ended by July, but since no new Israeli government was formed, there was no settlement to the issue, Ishtaye added.
He accused Israeli of implementing "unilateral financial measures aimed at political blackmail which we will not surrender to, and we will continue to demand every penny of our rights."
The PA has been facing a severe fiscal crisis after Israel in February decided to cut the tax revenues payment by the amount that the PA pays to the Palestinian prisoners and families of the Palestinians killed by Israel.
Under an economic treaty reached in 1995 between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel collects the taxes from the Palestinian trade on the PA's behalf and pays it back to the PA to pay the salaries for its employees.
Israel cuts 12 million U.S. dollars every month from the tax revenues paid to the PA, which has refused to receive the reduced tax money from Israel.
Several meetings were held between the two sides over the past few months to discuss join economic and financial issues, though the peace talks between the two sides have been stalled since 2014.
