Quds city, Feb 5, SPA -- Israel decided on Sunday to release to the Palestinians a tax revenue payment it froze after last month's election victory by Hamas group but said future transfers were unlikely. The United States had urged Israel to keep up the tax payments, at least until Hamas, formally enters the government. Israel had been scheduled to transfer nearly $55 million to the Palestinian Authority last Wednesday but announced at the time it had decided to suspend automatic monthly payments pending a policy review by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Abu Mazen is still president and the transfer is happening under the Oslo accords," cabinet minister Zeev Boim told reporters, referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals. But Boim, speaking after a cabinet meeting that discussed the issue, said that with a Hamas-led government likely, the payment could be the last. Tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority are the main source of funding for the Palestinian budget and are used to pay 140,000 government workers, Reuters reported.
