According to Jihad Watch, 160 Palestinian terrorists who were serving life sentences for murder received an average of more than one million shekels each, approximately $440,000, under the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program, which pays terrorists. The group said the total payout amounts to around 229.5 million shekels, not including additional stipends provided to families of the prisoners.
The terrorists were among about 250 prisoners freed under the US-brokered cease-fire agreement. Many were serving multiple life terms for deadly terror attacks.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) director Itamar Marcus said the findings demonstrate that the PA “remains a terror-funding entity,” adding, “Any government that spends hundreds of millions of dollars rewarding terrorists should be designated for what it is, a terror organization.” Marcus accused Western donors, including the European Union, of complicity for continuing to fund the PA while it maintains such payments.
Among those released, Hamas operative Imad Qawasmeh, convicted for the 2004 Be’er Sheva bus bombings that killed 16 people, had received over 1.1 million shekels during his imprisonment, according to PMW. Mahmoud Issa, another senior Hamas member convicted for the abduction and murder of Israeli police officer Nissim Toledano in 1992, allegedly received close to 1.9 million shekels over 35 years.
Critics say the PA’s longstanding stipend system for convicted terrorists and the families of those killed while attacking Israelis serves as an incentive for violence. The payments are formally administered through the PA’s Martyrs’ Fund, which distributes monthly salaries based on sentence length or casualty status.
The PA announced earlier this year that it would reform the policy to link payments to financial need rather than time served, but watchdogs say there is little evidence the changes have been implemented.
The revelation comes amid growing scrutiny of international aid flows to the Palestinian Authority following the cease-fire deal. Lawmakers in the US and Europe are expected to press for renewed oversight and potential conditions on future assistance.
