PA paid $70 million to terrorists freed in hostage deal, watchdog says
“The Palestinian Authority ensures that it very much pays to slay,” said Palestinian Media Watch.
Jubilant crowds welcome the released Palestinian prisoners returning from Israeli prisons on Oct. 13, 2025 in Ramallah.
In the context of the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire that went into effect last week, Israel has released 250 Palestinian terrorists who were serving at least one life sentence for murder. Of those, 160 are now millionaires thanks to the Palestinian Authority’s “pay-for-slay” program, having been paid over 1 million shekels during their imprisonment, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
The 160 released terrorists collectively received at least 229.5 million shekels ($70 million) from the P.A., according to PMW. The other 90 also received a significant sum.
PMW noted that the figure excludes additional stipends for family members, meaning the total payouts were likely far higher.
“The Palestinian Authority ensures that it very much pays to slay,” PMW stated.
“Any government that spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year rewarding terrorists should be designated for what it is—a terror organization,” PMW founder and director Itamar Marcus told JNS.
“Yet the Palestinian Authority, which openly funds and glorifies terrorists, continues to enjoy international legitimacy and generous Western support,” he added.
“Shockingly, instead of cutting ties, the European Union and many European countries partner with the P.A. by paying its civil servants’ salaries—a scheme that frees up the P.A.’s other funds to pay monthly salaries to imprisoned terrorists. This is not legitimate foreign aid; it’s complicity in terror,” he told JNS.
Israel has released a total of 1,950 terrorists as part of the exchange for 20 Israeli hostages and 28 bodies, not all of which have been returned, a “blatant violation” of the agreement, according to Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Among the released terrorists are:
Maher Abu-Surur, who murdered Haim Nachmani, 29, a Shin Bet agent, in 1993.
Jihad A-Karim Azziz-Rom, who killed Yuri Gushchin, 18, in 2001, and took part in the 2000 Ramallah lynching of two Israeli soldiers.
Mohammad Imran, sentenced to 13 life terms for masterminding a 2002 Kiryat Arba ambush that killed 12 Israelis.
Imad Qawasmeh, serving 16 life sentences for the 2004 Beersheva bus bombings that killed 16 people.
Qassem Aref Khalil al-Asafreh, arrested in 2019 for the stabbing murder of yeshiva student Dvir Sorek, 18, in Gush Etzion.
In February, PMW posted a list of the 734 terrorists released in an earlier ceasefire agreement with Hamas, together with their “salaries”—the dollar amounts each terrorist received from the P.A.’s so-called Martyrs’ Fund while incarcerated.
In total, the terrorists received $141,837,087, or more than half a billion shekels. Of those, 316, or nearly half, received more than a million shekels each.
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