Taxes collected by Israel bound for Gaza will be held in Norway, instead of being sent to the Palestinian Authority, according to a plan approved by Israeli officials.

The Israeli Prime Ministerial Office has announced that tax funding rightfully due to Palestine will be withheld and instead, the funds will be sent to a third-party country.

In a communique via X published on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and leader of the Religious Zionist Party Bezalel Smotrich, and the violent occupier’s Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, were named as the architects of this oppressive plan.

The communique added that “The frozen funds will not be transferred to the Palestinian Authority but will remain in the hands of a third country.”

The communique also threatens to plunge Palestine into immense financial strain by immediately freezing all financial payments due to the occupied territory, should there be any attempts to stop the plan from going ahead.

Also on Sunday, Netanyahu remarked during a press conference that through his years-long efforts and insistence, the establishment of a Palestinian state has been prevented.

“As long as I am Prime Minister, I will continue to firmly stand by this,” he vowed.

Despite such rhetoric flouting international human rights laws, the United States and Norway are said to “respect” the Israeli Cabinet’s decision to economically stifle the already suffering Palestinian economy.

However, Norway’s Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned against the weaponisation of what is rightfully due to Palestinians as a cruel “bargaining chip.”

As per the 1994 Paris Protocol on Economic Relations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), Israel wields fiscal power over Palestine as the former’s Finance Ministry collects tax revenues on the latter’s behalf.

The 1994 agreement stipulates that Israel is to make transfers due to Palestine every month.

This monthly revenue is estimated by Anadolu Agency to be worth upwards of $188 million and is the main source of income for the Palestinian Authority.

However, Al Jazeera reports that in the immediate aftermath of having renewed its onslaught on the besieged enclave, Israel has been withholding the Gaza Strip’s much-needed funding.

In response to Israel stifling Palestine’s financial rights, Hussein Al Sheikh, Secretary General to the PLO’s Executive Committee, has called upon the international community to immediately transfer all funds due.

“Any deductions from our financial rights or any conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the PA from paying our people in the Gaza Strip are rejected by us,” the senior PLO official said via X.

In another X post, Al Sheikh said that Palestinian leadership were exploring all methods to overcome this financial difficulty induced by Israel withholding their due funds.

He added, “The leadership demands an end to this destructive war and this continuing aggression against our people throughout the country.”

To date, the Palestinian Health Ministry estimates that the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 25,000 people since October 7. Overwhelmingly, the casualties of Israel’s onslaught have been women and children.

With no let-up in sight, the aggressor’s expansionist destruction has left a further 62,681 injured.