Norway has announced that it will transfer tax funds to the Palestinian Authority that have been frozen for months due to a dispute with Israel. Under interim peace agreements, Israel collects taxes and customs on behalf of the PA, but after the war in Gaza, Israel reduced the transfers by the amount spent on the territory. The PA refused to accept the partial transfers, leading to a financial crisis. Under the new agreement, Israel will transfer all the funds to Norway, which will then transfer funds for the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority while holding those destined for Gaza. The transfer will help the PA pay salaries to public employees and prevent its financial collapse. Israel has reduced tax transfers in the past to protest the PA's payments to families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed by Israel. The US is pushing for a postwar settlement in which a revitalized Palestinian Authority would govern the West Bank and Gaza, but Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects the idea. Norway played a key role in brokering the 1993 Oslo Accords but no substantive peace talks have been held since Netanyahu returned to office in 2009. [fc97dfa3]