The Palestinian Finance Ministry said that 170,000 civil and military employee received their salaries through the banks after the Israeli government transferred some 370 million Israeli shekel ($105.5 million) in tax and customs funds collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz confirmed Palestinian ministry’s statement.

The Israeli government suspended the transfer of the funds after the Fatah and Hamas movements signed a reconciliation agreement early this month. Steinitz said at the time he would only allow the transfer after receiving guarantees the money would not reach Hamas’ hands and would be used to sponsor “terrorism.”

Ghassan Al-Khatib, spokesman of Palestinian government, said that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was told of Israel’s decision to release the funds by the Quartet’s Middle East envoy Tony Blair and by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Al-Khatib said that the release of the tax funds is the outcome “an international-level success in the effort and the Palestinian campaign, which pressured Israel to transfer these funds.”

The Israeli opposition party of Kadima criticized the Israeli government for the release of funds.

“This is how the Israeli government is losing its credibility once again,” said Nachman Shai, Knesset Member of Kadima.

“Even before the ink dried on the finance minister’s populist declaration saying he won’t transfer tax funds to the Palestinians, it turns out that he is transferring them and with urgency, as was demanded by the international community,” Shai said.

According to the Kadima official, “this exercise, which has been tried before and has failed, illustrates the short-sightedness of the government and its inability to confront in an inventive way the fluctuations in the Palestinian camp.”