Palestinian Government Paying $16 Mil a Month to Imprisoned Terrorists, Including Hamas Fighters, Watchdog Finds
23rd July 2024
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.”