"This is an opportunity to appeal to Israel to reconsider, to stop these actions and to release our money immediately," Shtayyeh said in a statement ahead of a ministerial meeting of international partners on Palestine hosted in Brussels on Monday by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and chaired by Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.

The Palestinian prime minister denounced the "growing pressure" on the PA's finances in recent months "due to decisions by the Israeli government to withhold funds that are very important" for the Palestinian government, which controls the Israeli-occupied West Bank in fragments, to "continue providing services" to its citizens.

"We do not want anybody, including Israel, to undermine our efforts," Shtayyeh said, arguing that the frozen money is crucial for his government to reform its institutions, help civilians in Gaza and "sustain the efforts towards statehood and towards peace in the region."

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel has blocked the funds it collects on behalf of the PA, leaving the PA, which governs small enclaves in the West Bank, struggling to pay the salaries of its roughly 150,000 employees, a problem that predates the conflict but has now worsened and further depressed the public sector.

The Palestinian prime minister said in Brussels on Monday that his aim is to "stabilise the financial and economic situation" in Palestine, a task that is already made difficult, Shtayyeh denounced, by Israel's military occupation and restrictions on movement and access in the occupied West Bank.

Despite this situation, with the war in Gaza ongoing, the Palestinian leader said that his government's main priority is to support the civilian population in the enclave, and said that the best way to do this is to "accelerate the implementation of a ceasefire."

"Every day that passes is a big loss in lives and hope for our people. We want to see the ceasefire happening very soon and we want to be ready, as a government, to do the necessary job to take care of our people," he said.

Shtayyeh said that the first step would be to provide humanitarian aid to restore basic services in Gaza and then to "rebuild the PA institutions" in the Gaza Strip, currently controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, in order to "reintegrate them with the institutions in the West Bank and start taking the necessary steps towards economic recovery."

Monday's ministerial meeting in Brussels, which Shtayyeh is attending with international partners, is, according to the European Commission, "an opportunity to exchange on the PA's plans and priorities and discuss how the international community can best support the new government's reform agenda and strengthen Palestinian institutions."

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