Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan on Wednesday urged the Trump administration to impose personal sanctions on Mohammad Shtayyeh, a former “prime minister” of the Palestinian Authority.
Shtayyeh recent praise for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of some 1,200 people constitutes “a direct endorsement of a terrorist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction,” Dagan wrote in a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The letter was first reported on by Israel National News on Wednesday.
“The United States has made it clear in the past that it will not tolerate support for terrorism,” Dagan said. “Therefore, I urge you to act without delay and impose strict personal sanctions against him.
“This is not just rhetoric—it’s support for terrorism and incitement to another massacre reminiscent of the darkest chapters in history. The time for sanctions is now,” the Samaria leader wrote.
Shtayyeh last month praised the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre as “courageous and unprecedented,” according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) published on Sunday.
“October 7 was a courageous and unprecedented operation,” Shtayyeh said in the July 29 interview with a podcast of Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya.
“It is an important crossroad in the history of the Palestinian struggle,” the former official stated, while at the same time accusing Hamas of having “miscalculated” the repercussions for the residents of Gaza.
Following the Oct. 7 massacres, the Palestinian cause “has been taken out of the freezer and put into the oven—it is now hot and at the top of the world’s priorities,” Shtayyeh exclaimed, claiming that the Jewish state has “lost its image as a victim, lost its status as the only democracy. … Israel stands accused as a criminal country before the international courts.”
Shtayyeh said that the P.A.'s ruling Fatah faction was still seeking a deal aimed at bringing Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization.
“We are not asking for anything from Hamas. We are not asking them to recognize Israel,” he said. “All we are asking Hamas is to join the PLO.”
Shtayyeh served as the P.A.'s “prime minister” between 2019 and March 2024, when he was replaced by Mohammad Mustafa. During the current war led by Hamas, Shtayyeh’s Fatah faction repeatedly sought to ink a unity agreement with the terrorist organization based in the Gaza Strip.
On July 31, U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the PLO and P.A. over their “pay-to-slay” payment scheme for terrorists convicted of murdering Jews.
Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister, welcomed the sanctions announcement in the wake of announcements by France, the United Kingdom and Canada that they intend to recognize a Palestinian state.
“In the face of too many countries with a flawed moral compass, that repeatedly choose to side with evil, stands the United States under the leadership of President Trump, choosing to lead with justice and morality,” Smotrich said.
