A day after his rare meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced Aug. 30 that Israel will transfer $155 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA). 

The Times of Israel reports that the deal will enable Israel to bypass a 2018 law that requires the Israeli government to withhold a portion of the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the PA as punishment for the stipends that Ramallah awards to Palestinians jailed in Israel and their families. The newspaper reports that the newly announced cash transfer will be funded using the roughly $186 million in tax revenues that Israel confiscated earlier this summer. 

Gantz also told reporters that Israel would recognize the residency rights of thousands of Palestinians, most of them from the Gaza Strip or other countries, who live in the West Bank without legal status. 

The goodwill gestures follow the defense minister's meeting with Abbas on the evening of Aug. 29 in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in what marked the first face-to-face talks in more than a decade between high-level Israeli and Palestinian officials.