Palestinian Authority reportedly restores ‘pay-for-slay’ payments, raising questions over US aid compliance

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is restoring payments to convicted terrorists and their families under its controversial “pay-for-slay” program, according to a new court ruling highlighted by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), reigniting scrutiny over the PA’s funding policies and its financial ties to the United States.

The development comes after a U.S. State Department report released Wednesday said the PA has continued making “pay-for-slay” transfers despite repeated commitments to end the practice.

According to a recent report submitted to Congress, the PA transferred approximately $126 million to convicted terrorists and another $30 million to the families of individuals killed by Israeli security forces while carrying out terrorist attacks. Another $60 million in such payments has reportedly been committed over the coming months.

“The PA continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through new mechanisms and under a different name,” the State Department reported. “Despite changing the mechanisms, the PA continued payments and benefits to Palestinian terrorists and their families.”

The issue carries major implications in Washington because U.S. law bars certain aid to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues compensating convicted terrorists and their families under the so-called “pay-for-slay” system. The Taylor Force Act, passed in 2018, prohibits direct U.S. economic assistance to the PA while such payments continue.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry posted a statement to 𝕏 last Thursday that included an image of a document purportedly showing a PA court ruling in favor of a prisoner being held in an Israeli jail for participating in a lethal terrorist attack, after he petitioned the court to restore his “pension.”

According to PMW, the ruling establishes a legal precedent within the PA system that could restore “pensions” and “salaries” to at least 1,600 individuals currently serving prison sentences in Israel for terrorist offenses.

"The terrorist's lawyer told Hebron's Radio Alam that the PA's lawyers didn't contest his entitlement to a salary, instead citing a technical rationale for the suspension," Palestinian Media Watch wrote on 𝕏. "The lawyer countered that Pay-for-Slay is guaranteed under PA law, which was accepted by the court."

The payments remain deeply controversial in Israel, where terrorist attacks have claimed thousands of lives over the decades.

According to Israeli Police statistics, between 40 and 50 Israeli citizens were killed annually in terrorist attacks from 2018 through 2022, in incidents that largely included stabbings, car-ramming attacks and occasional shootings.

The figures surged dramatically in 2023 following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre, in which more than 1,100 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed. In 2024, the number dropped back to 46 fatalities, not including members of the security services, firefighting teams and medical first responders killed in combat situations.

There are estimates that as many as 15,000 Israelis have lost a first-degree relative – a spouse, parent, child or sibling – in terrorist attacks, while many more have either been wounded themselves or seen close family members injured.

Taylor Force, for whom the 2018 legislation was named, was a 28-year-old American university student who was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist while jogging along the Tel Aviv promenade near the U.S. Embassy on March 8, 2016.

Force, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, was visiting Israel as part of a study program through Vanderbilt University, where he was pursuing an MBA.