The Palestinian government will pay $16.4 million a month to imprisoned terrorists and their families, including nearly 900 Gaza-based fighters captured by Israeli forces in the wake of Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack, a watchdog group found.
Payments by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to imprisoned terrorists have risen by $2 million a month, and are being reliably doled out even as the West Bank-based government teeters on the brink of financial collapse, according to watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch. The PA has recognized thousands of those terrorists as eligible for "pay-to-slay" payments in the wake of Oct. 7, including 899 who were captured in Gaza in recent months.
All told, "9,750 terrorist prisoners are now recognized by the PA as eligible for monthly terror rewards, up from 4,300 prior to October 7," according to Palestinian Media Watch, which tracks the PA's terrorist payment system. The watchdog group "calculates that once the processing of the new prisoners is complete, the PA will be paying a minimum of 59,560,000 shekels (about $16.4 million) a month in salaries to terrorist prisoners, up from 52,000,000 shekels (about $14.3 million) a month prior to October 7."
The payment scheme, buoyed by international aid dollars, is one of the primary reasons that Republican officials want to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinians, which has totaled upwards of $1.5 billion since America began pumping humanitarian aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip. Prior to Oct. 7, the Biden administration pushed through plans to send millions of dollars to the Palestinian government as part of its drive to reignite the peace process with Israel and prop up the fledgling PA.
In the nine months since war broke out with Hamas, the PA has consistently added new terrorists to its pay-to-slay program. Another 899 terrorists captured in Gaza were recently "recognized by the Palestinian Authority as prisoners, ... and 9,750 terrorists are now recognized by the PA as prisoners from PA-controlled areas," according to Palestinian Media Watch's latest analysis.
Those figures are likely to continue increasing as Israel captures Hamas fighters and other would-be terrorists operating in the West Bank.
As of January, for example, the PA had recognized 661 terrorists from Gaza and a total of 8,000 prisoners. The latest spike indicates the PA has no intention of stopping these payments, and views the Hamas fighters captured by Israel as its financial responsibility.
This is likely to complicate U.S. ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas that are aimed at freeing those still being held hostage by the Iran-backed terror group. The latest proposal reportedly places the PA at the helm of any Gaza reconstruction effort.
"The Israeli government would need to allow the Palestinian Authority to have a role in governing Gaza and agree to a political process based on the two-state solution," according to details of the framework published Tuesday by Axios. The United States would also reportedly play a leadership role.
There are also lingering questions about how the United States would fund the Palestinian government’s ruling authority in Gaza. U.S. law currently prohibits taxpayer funds from being awarded to the PA until it ends the pay-to-slay program. The law has not stopped the Biden administration from funneling U.S. aid to the Palestinian government, creating a flashpoint between the Democratic White House and Republican foreign policy leaders in Congress.
The Palestinian government, meanwhile, is signaling that it has no intention of stopping its terrorism incentive program.
"Among the thousands of terrorists arrested from Hamas-controlled Gaza, 238 have been recognized by the PA as prisoners since January, and the number of individuals that the PA recognizes as prisoners overall has increased by 950 since January," Palestinian Media Watch found.
While conservative estimates place the total expenditures on terrorists at around $16 million, "the total PA payment for terrorist prisoners is far higher because these sums only represent how much single prisoners with no children receive in their first year of incarceration." It also does not include an "accounting for how the salaries increase over time or the additions for wives, children, and Israeli residency."
The PA also recently recognized Hamas’s death toll figures in Gaza, which list "38,983 Martyrs since October 7," according to Palestinian Media Watch. These families are now eligible to receive a one-time payment of around $1,600 and a subsequent monthly allowance of $385 for life.
Palestinian officials guarantee those payments will be made, even as the government struggles to pay its own bills and employees. Muhammad Hamida, a PA economy minister, said earlier this month that pay cuts are necessary to continue paying terrorists and their families.
"While we as [public] employees received a salary at a rate of 50 percent, before the [Gaza] war, the families of the prisoners and Martyrs [i.e., terrorists] received a full salary," Hamida said. "The Palestinian leadership remains committed to this. It deducted amounts from regular employees and gave a full salary to the families of the prisoners and Martyrs."