RAMALLAH, June 11, 2018 (WAFA) – The Palestinian government said on Monday that it will never abandon the prisoners held in Israeli jails or families of those killed by Israelis regardless of the cost.

The government remarks, made by its spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud, came in reaction to a new Israeli legislation passed on Monday that would allow the Israeli government to deduct the amount of welfare money paid by the Palestinian government to prisoners and families of those killed by Israel in the long battle against the 51-year long Israeli occupation.

“Our Palestinian Arab people and leadership stand firm in their loyalty to our prisoners and martyrs who have sacrificed their lives in order for our people to live and for the sake of the freedom and independence of their homeland," said Mahmoud.

“The occupation is the party that bears full responsibility for the lives of our people because of its aggression and occupation of our land,” he said.

Mahmoud described the Israeli legislation as “piracy” and “theft” of Palestinian funds.

“The occupation authorities are the ones who must return all the rights and compensations for their occupation and should be held accountable for their crimes,” he said. “But for the occupation authorities to reach a level of arrogance in which they kill the victim and force him to pay the price of his death is the highest degrees of sadism and madness in history.”

Mahmoud stressed that the tax revenues are the money of the Palestinian people as stipulated in the signed agreements. The Israeli side should collect it for the Palestinian treasury in exchange for an agreed commission, and any violation of this agreement is considered theft and robbery and will harm the signed agreements.

M.K.