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The PA Is Still Paying Salaries to Terrorists and ‘Martyrs’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
On Wednesday, the Palestinian Authority (PA) announced a new system of payments, which was supposed to be based on welfare needs and not as a reward to terrorists:
The Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (PNEEI) announces the payment of financial allowances within the Social Protection and Care Program, starting from Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, through authorized payment centers.
However, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has confirmed that payments were made via the PA post offices, as in the past, indicating that the post offices are the aforementioned “authorized payment centers.”
The PA’s post office ATMs are exclusively for paying terror salaries and allowances, as stated in an official announcement last year by the PLO:
Our people, families of the Martyrs and injured in the West Bank … on the subject of the payment of allowances for the families of Martyrs and injured … We call on the recipients of the funds to withdraw the large amounts that have accumulated for them at the post office, including the current allowance …
As we have emphasized before, the post office is not a regular bank like other banks and cannot hold funds, but is only a means of transferring allowances, and the funds cannot be held for a long period in the accounts of the recipients …
We wish mercy for the souls of the martyrs, recovery for the wounded, and freedom for the prisoners. [emphasis added]
[PLO Martyrs’ Families and Injured Care Establishment, Feb, 2024]
The PNEEI announcement above, stating that payments were made “through authorized payment centers,” was possibly its attempt to hide that the payments were made through the post offices, which are exclusively used for paying terrorists.
PMW has confirmed that families of prisoners and “Martyrs” have received payments through post offices as in the past.
Earlier this week, an online news site reported that it had received information from the Palestinian Authority indicating that the PA had stopped rewarding imprisoned terrorists and terrorist Martyrs’ families as in the past, but had moved them to a new welfare-based system, according to The Times of Israel.
The article also claimed that the “Welfare payments, which are now distributed by the extra-governmental PNEEI, have not yet been issued.” These payments, according to the article, would have been the payments to imprisoned terrorists and “Martyrs’” families.
However, the claim that PNEEI payments were not made this month openly contradicts PNEEI’s own announcement on its website that payments were made on Thursday. As stated, PMW has confirmed terror payments were made last Thursday at the post offices.
There were additional inaccuracies as well in the article, including a prominent mistake, defining PNEEI as “extra-governmental.”
Below are pictures and bios of all the PNEEI board members as they appear on its website. As can be seen, 10 of the 11 board members are employed in senior PA government positions, including one minister and six undersecretaries. Only one is an academic. Moreover, PNEEI answers to Mahmoud Abbas.
With senior government officers as board members, the article’s defining PNEEI as “extra-governmental” is another clear example of publishing PA claims without doing the minimal investigation to verify them.
Especially on a politically sensitive topic, such as the PA’s terror rewards, one would expect more careful journalism before publishing the PA’s claim to have reformed.
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article first appeared.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.