Israel decided Wednesday to release millions of dollars in tax revenues it owes the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is on the brink of financial collapse dpa reported
The decision was taken by a forum of eight senior ministers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu's office said in a statement.
But it warned that if the PA returned to "unilateral activity" - seeking membership of United Nations insitutions while bypassing Israel and avoiding direct negotiations - the transfer of money would be "reconsidered."
Acting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had earlier warned the PA was "fast approaching" the point of incapacitation by Israel's failure to transfer the money.
Only Netanyahu's ultra-right foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, strongly opposed the decision to unfreeze the money.
Israel collects roughly 100 million dollars a month for the PA, mostly on goods that reach the West Bank and Gaza via its ports and border crossings.
It had been due to transfer the taxes collected for October by early November, but failed to do so in protest of Palestine's admission to the UN's cultural organization, UNESCO, on October 31.
Israel also opposes the efforts to reconcile between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the radical Islamist Hamas movement in control of Gaza, and has used withholding the money as leverage.
But it has come under heavy international pressure to release the sum to the cash-starved PA.
The taxes and customs Israel collects on behalf of the PA amount to about two-third of the autonomous government's monthly revenue.
Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee in Jerusalem Tuesday Israel would not want to bring the PA to a collapse