JERUSALEM, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Israel's security cabinet announced the decision on Sunday to deduct funds from the Palestinian tax revenues over paying families of Palestinians who attacked Israelis.
A cabinet statement said 149 million shekels (about 43.1 million U.S. dollars) will be deducted from funds that were supposed to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who had brought up the proposal, said the funds are equal to stipends paid by the PA to families of assailants who carried out attacks against Israelis and were killed or wounded during the attack.
Bennett said the purpose of the move is to increase the pressure on the Palestinians not to carry out attacks against Israelis.
The money will be deducted from annual tax revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the PA.
Israeli government says that the stipends "encourage" Palestinians' attacks against Israelis but the Palestinians say these are welfare payments for needy families.
In July 2018, the Israeli parliament passed a law to deduct from tax revenues an amount equal to what the PA pays to families of prisoners.
Some 500 million shekels have been cut from the money that Israel has transferred to the PA, triggering an economic crisis in the West Bank and fears that the PA will collapse.
