RAMALLAH, June 24, 2026 (WAFA) – Vice President Hussein Al Sheikh on Wednesday welcomed the European efforts aimed at securing the release of clearance revenues withheld by the Israeli government.

Vice President Al Sheikh commended the European Council’s efforts to resolve this issue amid the severe financial and economic crisis gripping the State of Palestine.

He stressed that it was an urgent need to release of the withheld clearance revenues to ease the financial burden on Palestinian institutions, enable them to continue providing essential services to the Palestinian people, and strengthen Palestinians’ steadfastness.

Israel, the occupying power, continues to withhold around $6 billion in Palestinian tax revenues, known as “clearance revenues”, in addition to $5 billion in frozen banking funds.

Clearance revenues are one of the State of Palestine’s main sources of income. They consist of taxes and customs duties collected by Israel on behalf of Palestinians on goods entering through crossings under Israeli control, under the 1994 Paris Economic Protocol, before being transferred to the Palestinian government each month.

Following the outbreak of its genocidal aggression on Gaza in October 2023, Israel expanded the deductions to include an additional monthly amount equivalent to Gaza’s share of the State of Palestine’s budget.

As part of the outcomes of its summit held in Brussels on June 18-19, the European Council called again on Israel to “urgently release all withheld clearance revenues and extend the correspondent banking services between Israeli and Palestinian banks, both being necessary to ensure the proper functioning of the Palestinian Authority and the delivery of essential services to the population.”

K.F.