Israel's Finance Ministry has forwarded the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) 180 million shekels (about 45 million U.S. dollars) in light of the entity's severe cash flow problem, The Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

The funds, an advance on a monthly tax transfer collected on behalf of the PNA, were deposited in accounts before the start of the month-long Ramadan fast, which begins Friday. The move is one of several such Israeli gestures toward the Palestinians in the last six months.

One senior Israeli official told the Post that he hoped the gesture would "improve the atmosphere."

Each month Israel transfers about 100 million U.S. dollars in tax and tariffs; on several occasions, Israel has withheld the tax revenues in order to coerce the Palestinian leadership to take desired measures.

The PNA says it is struggling to pay the monthly salaries of its public sector employees.

In June, Palestinian observers told Xinhua that the severe fiscal crisis the PNA is going through -- said to be the hardest since President Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005 -- has led to a retreat in the Palestinian economic growth rate from 9 percent in 2010 to 5.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The crisis has forced the PNA to pay only 60 percent of June salaries to its employees and civil servants amid an absence of solution.

"Suspending the direct peace talks with Israel in 2010 and the Palestinian bid for a full UN recognition of a Palestinian state could be the major reasons behind the pressure on the Palestinians to accept what Israel wants," Ahmed Majdalani, the PNA minister of labor, told Xinhua.

Samer Anabtawi, a political science professor at al-Najah University in the West Bank city of Nablus, told Xinhua that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has promised that 2013 will see an end to foreign aid, "but in reality, it is clear that as we are getting closer to achieving this promise, the financial crisis grows more and gets worse."

Official figures show that the PNA needs some 300 million dollars annually to cover its security needs, while its annual income is not more than 160 million dollars.

Meanwhile, the Saudi government said last week that they planned to transfer 100 million dollars to the PNA, according to earlier report.