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Increased risk of Palestinian Authority’s fiscal collapse, says World Bank
The fiscal situation for the Palestinian Authority (PA) has deteriorated over the past three months amid Israel’s war on Gaza, “significantly raising the risk of a fiscal collapse”, the World Bank reports.
“The rapidly widening gap between the amount of revenues coming in, and the amount needed to finance essential public expenditure, is driving a fiscal crisis,” the World Bank said on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he will no longer transfer tax funds to the PA, which runs the occupied West Bank, after Norway, Spain and Ireland said they will recognise a Palestinian state.
UNRWA chief says ‘another war’ rages in occupied West Bank
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said an “unnoticed” war is being fought in the occupied Palestinian territory where Israeli forces are launching regular operations to destroy houses, bulldoze roads, and dismantle “basic infrastructure” such as water and electricity.
UN staff, he said, recounted how the Nur Shams refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank was “once a bustling area with markets and life” but has now been hit by the “destruction” of Israeli forces.
Palestinians are sinking into poverty, separation and isolation as their movements are restricted, and the situation is further destabilised by Palestinian armed groups, he said. Any further escalation in the violence, and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, will push a “peaceful resolution to this decades-long conflict” further away, he added.
In the West Bank, another war goes unnoticed.
In the northern refugee camp of Nour Shams, @UNRWA staff told me about the impact of Israeli Forces’ regular operations on their daily lives.
What was once a bustling area with markets and life, lays in destruction now 👇
Houses… pic.twitter.com/rwRuD199iN
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) May 23, 2024
Fighting in Balata camp after another Israeli raid
Israeli forces have now raided the Balata camp in the occupied West Bank, bulldozing infrastructure and storming homes, reports the Wafa news agency. The raid caused fighting to break out in the camp, although no casualties or arrests have yet been recorded.
The incursion is part of another round of familiar West Bank raids by Israeli forces, who earlier stormed areas within Hebron, Tulkarem, Ramallah and el-Bireh governorates.
During a raid on the town Qaffin, near Tulkarem, a Palestinian woman was injured by a bullet fragment as confrontations broke out. In Beitunia, west of Ramallah, Israeli forces arrested two Palestinians.
The raids contribute to what UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has said is a “second war” in the occupied West Bank, with “separation, isolation, and movement restrictions” plaguing Palestinian communities. Escalating attacks by Israeli forces and settlers have also intensified fear, with 518 people, including 129 minors, killed by such violence since October 7. Israeli forces have also made 8,840 arrests during the period, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.
