Israel’s cabinet has approved a plan tax revenue intended for the under the control of Hamas Gaza Strip to be held by Norway instead of being transferred to the Palestinian Authority, officials said today.

Under the interim peace agreements of the 1990s, Israel’s finance ministry collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly payments to the Palestinian Authority (PA)which exercises limited authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

However, disagreements are constantly being recorded about the agreement, with the Israelamong other things, to request that the proceeds not end up with Hamas.

Hamas took control Gaza by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in 2007, after a short-lived civil war, and two years after Israel withdrew its settlers and military forces. Despite Hamas taking power, many Palestinian Authority civil servants in Gaza kept their jobs and continued to be paid from tax revenues.

The prime minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu he said the cabinet’s decision on tax revenue was supported by Norway and the US, which would guarantee that the framework is respected.

Netanyahu’s offices pointed out that the money, or any equivalent, would not be transferred “in one instance, except with the approval of the Israeli Finance Ministry and also not through a third party.”

The Organization for Palestine Liberation (PLO) said today that it wants the money in full and will not accept terms that would prevent it from paying its staff, including in Gaza.

“Any deductions from our financial rights or conditions imposed by Israel that prevent the Palestinian Authority from paying our people in the Gaza Strip are rejected by us,” said Hussein al-Sheikhgeneral secretary of the executive committee of the OAP, with his post on the X social media.

A spokesman for Israel’s finance ministry, Bezalel Smotrich, who leads a far-right, pro-settlement party, confirmed that the Norway will keep the proceeds under the agreement.

“Not one shekel will go to Gaza,” said Smotrichwho has long opposed transferring funds to the Palestinian Authority.