RSS
PA’s ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Payments to Rise by $1.3 Million Per Month
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank January 31, 2023. Majdi Mohammed/Pool via REUTERS
The Palestinian Authority (PA) has announced that since Hamas launched its war on Oct. 7, an additional 3,550 terrorists have been recognized as prisoners of Israel, making a total of 8,800 prisoners.
The overwhelming majority of those included in this number have been captured during Israel’s activities against terror in the PA-controlled areas, while 661 are Hamas terrorists from Gaza:
The prisoners’ affairs institutions:
“The total number of prisoners in the occupation’s [i.e., Israel’s] prisons at the end of December 2023 reached 8,800. Of them, more than 80 female prisoners are in Damon Prison alone … The number of those [prisoners] whom the occupation classifies as ‘illegal fighters’ [i.e., Hamas terrorists from Gaza] is 661.
This means that the number of all the prisoners increased by 3,550 prisoners since Oct. 7. The number of administrative [detainees] increased by 1,971.”
[PA-funded Prisoners’ Club, Telegram channel, Jan. 3, 2024]
Before Oct. 7, the PA had been rewarding 5,250 prisoners and nearly 8,000 released terrorist prisoners with approximately $13.4 million (50 million shekels) in monthly salaries as rewards for terror.
The nearly 67% rise in the number of prisoners will initially cost the PA an additional $1,331,000 per month (4,970,000 shekels), adding $16 million to last year’s expenditure of $161 million (600,000,000 shekels) on terror salaries.
The additional $1,331,000 per month are only the initial costs. According to PA law, as Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) already exposed in 2011, each of the new terrorist prisoners will receive a starting salary of 1,400 shekels per month ($375 per month), which will rise the longer he or she is in prison, reaching a maximum of 12,000 shekels per month ($3,215 per month).
23,210 additional “Martyrs”
In addition, the official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida announced on Wednesday that there are 23,210 additional “Martyrs.”
This follows the official announcement by the PLO “Families of the Martyrs and Wounded Institution” three days ago that it recognized an additional 22,000 “Martyrs” in Gaza — which makes their families eligible to receive monthly stipends as well.
Through the PLO, the Palestinian Authority pays the families of so-called “Martyrs” — including all terrorists who were killed attacking Israelis — an immediate one-time 6,000-shekel grant and then 1,400 shekels per month for life.
After previous Israeli wars against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, it took several years for the PA to process the thousands of “Martyrs,” but eventually their families received money from the PA.
While most of the names and other information about the “Martyrs” from Gaza are certainly unknown at this stage, the PA was quick to announce that it will make sure to guarantee their families a “dignified life … [and] will continue its efforts to provide the services that it gives these families”:
Chairwoman of the [PLO] Families of the Martyrs and Wounded Institution Intisar Al-Wazir said that this year [Palestinian] Martyrs’ Day is taking place at a time when acts of genocide and massacres by the occupation’s forces against our people in the Gaza Strip are continuing … the result of which was more than 22,000 Martyrs…
She emphasized that the leadership led by [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas is committed to taking care of the families of our Martyrs and wounded and makes sure to guarantee a dignified life for them. She also emphasized that the Families of the Martyrs and Wounded Institution … will continue its efforts to provide the services that it gives these families, which have sacrificed that which is most precious to them for the homeland.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 7, 2024]
The expression of guaranteeing a “dignified life” has been used by the PA before to justify the monthly payments the PA makes to terrorists and their families.
What is clear from both the new PA announcements and past policy is that the PA does not differentiate between Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities after invading Israel on Oct. 7, the Hamas terrorists killed by Israel in the ensuing war, and civilian non-combatants killed in the Gaza Strip while being used as human shields by Hamas. They are all considered “Martyrs” whose families are eligible to receive stipends of 1,400 shekels per month for life.
It should be noted that the PA and PLO institution’s figures for “Martyrs” are based on the Hamas-run Ministry of Health’s announcements, which are certainly exaggerations as can be seen in the one case where there is clear evidence.
After an Islamic Jihad rocket landed in the parking lot of a Gaza hospital killing an estimated 50 people, the PA and the Hamas Ministry of Health both announced that 500 civilians were killed inside the hospital by an Israeli bomb.
Likewise, analysis has debunked the Hamas daily announcements of numbers of “Martyrs,” showing that there are days when the PA reported more women and children as having died than the total number of dead reported for that same day. The casualty figures are clearly exaggerations intended to bring international condemnation of Israel and international pressure for a ceasefire.
In the same article announcing the new “Martyrs,” the PA daily emphasized how highly the PA values the terrorist “Martyrs”:
“Palestine’s Martyrs constitute a medal of honor for our people. They are the symbol of freedom and self-sacrifice, and they are the stars who do not disappear from our skies. They perfume our land with their deep-red and fragrant blood, and they are more honored than us all.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 7, 2024]
Because of its “pay-for-slay” terror rewards, the PA has lost billions of dollars in foreign funding, a billion dollars that Israel deducted from tax transfers per Israel’s deduction law [according to PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh on Al-Araby TV, Dec. 10, 2023], and billions of dollars wasted on funding terrorists and their families.
As a result, the PA currently does not have the money to pay salaries to Palestinian civil servants, including teachers, and has been making only partial payments for over two years. Now, the international community is asking Israel to release the money it has frozen because the PA is sending it to Gaza, while complaining to Israel about the PA’s dire financial situation.
The new salaries just for the prisoners alone will cause the PA an additional budget deficit of $16 million per year. When the PA begs for international aid because of its great deficit, the donor countries should remember that when they fund the PA — either through direct aid or by paying expenses — in essence, they will be reimbursing the PA for money it spent to fund terror.
It’s time the donors conditioned their funding on the end of the PA’s “pay-for-slay” program.
The author is the founder and executive director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
The post PA’s ‘Pay-for-Slay’ Payments to Rise by $1.3 Million Per Month first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
The post Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
TRUMP THREAT
Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
The post Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
The post Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival first appeared on Algemeiner.com.