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Israel Releases Payment to Palestinians

The Israeli cabinet authorized Sunday a $55 million tax payment to the Palestinian Authority, five days after freezing the transfer following the victory of the Islamic terrorist group Hamas in Palestinian parliamentary elections. But acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made clear that future payments to the Palestinian Authority after a Hamas majority enters parliament later this month would be subject to review.

Olmert unfroze the monthly payment after several of his ministers, including those in charge of defense and diplomacy, argued that withholding the money before Hamas joins the government would only weaken Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement has been a partner in past peace negotiations with Israel.

Also Sunday, a Palestinian university student killed a 58-year-old Israeli woman and wounded four others in a rush-hour stabbing attack on a commuter bus in the city of Petah Tikva, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Police said the attack was politically motivated. And at least two members of a smaller radical Palestinian faction, Islamic Jihad, were killed in an Israeli air strike on their car Sunday evening in the Gaza Strip town of Zeitun. Both were responsible for past terrorist attacks.