Qatar has threatened to stop its aid tranches to the restive Gaza Strip if Israel goes ahead with its plans to apply sovereignty to West Bank areas, Israel's Channel 13 reported Tuesday.
The report cited several sources among Western diplomats as saying that the message had been relayed to Israel over the past few weeks, including at a virtual meeting of countries providing funds to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Qatari funds have been instrumental in fostering calm in Israel's south, the report added, with their transfers into the coastal Palestinian enclave being a key component of a ceasefire arrangement between Israel and the Gaza terrorist groups.
In slashing the aid, the report notes, Doha seeks to avoid being seen as promoting annexation by continuing to enable calm on the Gaza border area.
Last week, Israel reportedly enabled a transfer of some $50 million of Qatari funds into the Gaza Strip.
The transfer reportedly came as part of an apparent de-escalation agreement with the Gaza factions, with the al-Akhbar newspaper reporting that the Hamas incendiary balloon unit agreed to stop their attacks in response.
As of July 1, the day when the annexation plan can be put to a vote in Knesset, nears, tensions are running high between Israel and Palestinians, with the IDF reporting Wednesday a thwarted Molotov cocktail attack in the West Bank.
On Tuesday, the Israeli security forces shot dead a suspected car-ramming attacker, who was later revealed to be the nephew of Saeb Erekat, the Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization.