The Palestinian Authority on Wednesday called on the international community to help secure the release of all terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
In a statement posted to the website of the P.A.’s Foreign Ministry, Ramallah reiterated its “commitment to secure the release of thousands of Palestinians unlawfully held captive by Israel, including a number of men, women and children who have forcibly disappeared from Gaza.”
The statement claimed that since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre—in which the terror group slaughtered some 1,200 people, with many raped and tortured—Israeli forces have detained more than 8,270 Palestinian suspects.
The IDF says it has arrested some 3,850 wanted Palestinians across Judea and Samaria since Oct. 7, of whom more than 1,650 are affiliated with Hamas.
Ramallah vowed to “continue its legal and political efforts” in order to achieve “freedom and justice for all Palestinian captives” and called on its international partners to increase their assistance to this end.
The P.A. statement did not make any mention of the 133 Israelis who were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7 and remain in Hamas captivity after 194 days.
Since Oct. 7, the P.A. has added thousands of imprisoned Palestinians to its list of people who qualify to receive monthly terror stipends, an Israeli watchdog reported earlier this year.
This month, the official in charge of Ramallah’s “pay for slay” program denied reports that it would end the payments, which increase in proportion to the severity of the crime, as part of a deal with the U.S.
Palestinian Prisoner Club Chairman Qadura Fares told the Gulf media outlet Erem News that the terror payments are enshrined in P.A. law and emphasized that they are “nonnegotiable” and a “red line.”
