<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Israel's new hard-right government announced Friday that it will withhold some Palestinian Authority revenues in response to its move to seek "consequences" from the United Nations for the Israeli occupation.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>The decision was taken at the first security cabinet meeting of the new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is regarded as the most right-wing in Israel's history.</div><div><br></div><div>The prime minister's office said the cabinet was acting in "response to the Palestinian Authority's decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel".</div><div><br></div><div>Last week, at the PA's request, the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to consider consequences for Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territories, a day after the Netanyahu government took office.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>The General Assembly voted 87-26 with 53 abstentions on the resolution, with Western nations split but virtually unanimous support in the Islamic world,</div><div><br></div><div>"The current government will not sit idly by in the face of this war and will respond as necessary," Netanyahu's office said.</div><div><br></div><div>It said around $40 million of the tax receipts it withheld from the PA would be used to compensate "families of victims murdered in Palestinian terrorist attacks".</div><div><br></div><div>It said it would also withhold a sum equivalent to the amount spent in 2022 on "payments made by the PA to terrorists and their families", without specifying how much.</div><div><br></div><div>The PA has long made monthly payments to the families of Palestinians killed in clashes with the Israeli security forces or while carrying out attacks against Israeli targets.</div><div><br></div><div>Under past peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians, Israel collects customs duties and other tax revenues on the PA's behalf, which it has often used as a bargaining counter with the Palestinian leadership in the past.</div><div><br></div><div>The cabinet also ordered a "moratorium on Palestinian construction plans in Area C," the largest part of the occupied West Bank which falls under Israeli administrative and security control.</div><div><br></div><div>The Palestinian foreign ministry said the Israeli reprisals were a "reflection of the Netanyahu government's racist colonial platform against our people" and "a flagrant violation of Israel's obligations as an occupying power".</div><div><br></div><div>It said they would "not discourage our people and our leadership from continuing the struggle... to provide international protection for our people and to put an end to Israel's continued impunity".</div><div><br></div><div>The Islamist rulers of Gaza, Hamas, condemned the "punitive measures" and called on the Palestinian Authority "not to give in" to Israeli pressure. - AFP&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>