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RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Authority welcomed on Friday foreign fund pledges it said would help it keep government services going while Israel withholds tax revenues it collects on its behalf.
Donor countries including ����ֱ��, Germany and Spain pledged at least $170 million to finance the budget of the Ramallah-based PA in New York on Thursday, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa’s office.
The announcement came as world leaders gathered for the UN General Assembly, with a recent string of recognitions of the State of Palestine by countries including France and Britain.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who on Thursday addressed the General Assembly by video, rejected any future role for Hamas in Palestinian governance.
Since Hamas seized total control of Gaza in 2007, the PA has had no leadership role there.
The PA had sought $400 million a month for six months, and the prime minister’s spokesman Mohammad Abu Al-Rob told AFP it was unclear whether the pledged funds would be renewed.
The PA has long been in fiscal crisis, but its finances were further hit by the war in Gaza, with Israel withholding tax revenue meant for the PA.
In the West Bank, services provided by the PA have deteriorated in recent months, with Israel stopping tax revenue transfers amounting to 68 percent of the authority’s budget, according to Abu Al-Rob.
“Who can continue working while losing 60 percent? Which country can continue offering services?” he said.
Because of the cuts, schools in the West Bank opened late this year, and were still only opening three days a week, he added.
The cuts have also “reduced work to the lowest limit for emergency cases and operations,” while also hitting medicine stocks, he said.

- ‘Economic strangulation’ -

Palestinians living in poverty were also affected, Abu Al-Rob said, with their numbers rising by over 150 percent since the start of the Gaza war, and with cash assistance not paid out in over two months.
An increase in the number of Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank, and a reduction in work permits for West Bank Palestinians seeking work inside Israel have had a drastic impact.
The Palestinian economy is largely governed by the 1994 Paris Protocol, which granted sole control over the territories’ borders to Israel, and with it the right to collect import duties and value-added tax for the PA.
Israel says that some of the money it withholds is meant to pay back costs such as electricity it sells to Palestinians.
But Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who stopped all payments to the PA four months ago, has said he would pursue the collapse of the Palestinian government through “economic strangulation” to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

ADEN, Yemen: Yemen’s Houthis said Friday that at least nine people were killed by Israeli strikes on the country’s capital of Sanaa the previous day, the latest in an increase in exchanges between Israel and the Iranian-backed militants over the war in Gaza.
The strikes on Thursday afternoon came a day after a drone launched by the Houthis wounded 22 people in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, a rare breach of Israel’s air defenses.
According to the health ministry in the Houthi-controlled northern half of Yemen, which includes Sanaa, four children, two women and three older people were among the dead. Houthi officials also said 59 children, 35 women and 80 older people were among the wounded.
Medics were still searching for victims believed to be trapped under rubble, the militants said, indicating the casualty tolls could rise.
The Israeli military said Thursday it carried out strikes in Yemen, with dozens of aircraft targeting Houthi military command headquarters, military camps and security and intelligence facilities.
A Houthi spokesperson, Omar El-Bekhety, said Thursday the Israeli strikes targeted residential neighborhoods and electricity facilities and claimed the Houthis’ defense systems had thwarted a “large part of the attack.”
“These crimes will not deter our people or break their will but will increase their steadfastness and resilience in confronting the Zionist crimes and continuing to support and back the honorable, oppressed, free people of Gaza,” he added.
According to Sanaa residents, one of the strikes hit a building in a densely populated area in Sanaa, believed to have housed a Houthi leader. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Ahmed Al-Mahweity said Friday that the strikes set off intense explosions that damaged several houses in the neighborhood. Selim Rageh, another resident, said several cars were also damaged.
“Everyone in the area came out covered in dust as if they came out from graves,” said Salem Al-Qasab, a shop owner. “Thick dust rose from the ground due to the intensity of the explosions. It was a terrifying scene, with the skies turning to clouds of black smoke and dust.”
Akram Al-Adeiny said Thursday the explosion was so intense it brought down the ceiling of his house, though no one was injured. His colleague in a cellphone shop lost his wife and child in one of the attacks, he said.
The Sanaa residents spoke to the AP over the phone.
Israel has launched previous airstrikes in response to the Houthis firing missiles and drones at Israel. The Houthis have launched missiles and drones toward Israel and targeted ships in the Red Sea for over 22 months, saying they are attacking in solidarity with Palestinians during the war in Gaza.