Eight hundred ninety-nine terrorists who were captured in the Gaza war have been recognized by the Palestinian Authority as prisoners (asra in Arabic = POWs), and 9,750 terrorists are now recognized by the P.A. as prisoners from PA-controlled areas [P.A. Commission of Detainees Affairs’ Facebook page, July 21, 2023]. This recognition is significant, because it means the P.A. considers them eligible for monthly terror reward salaries.
“The occupation’s [Israeli] Prison Service announced that 899 are imprisoned under the definition of ‘illegal fighter.’”
[WAFA, official PA news agency, June 16, 2024]
“Illegal fighter” is a term that the Israeli Prison Service uses to classify Gazan terrorists.
Salary calculations—new prisoners
Palestinian Media Watch calculates that once the processing of the new prisoners is complete, the P.A. will be paying a minimum of 59,560,000 shekels (about $16.4 million) a month in salaries to terrorist prisoners, up from 52,000,000 shekels (about $14.3 million) a month prior to Oct. 7.
PMW last reported on Jan. 10 that the P.A. had already recognized 661 terrorist prisoners from Gaza and a total of 8,800 prisoners.
The WAFA report shows that among the thousands of terrorists arrested from Hamas-controlled Gaza, 238 have been recognized by the P.A. as prisoners since January, and the number of individuals that the P.A. recognizes as prisoners overall has increased by 950 since January.
The PA rewards terrorist prisoners a salary of 1,400 shekels a month for the first 3 years in prison, and the salary gradually rises to 12,000 after 30 years. The P.A. pays an additional 300 shekels/month for each wife, 50 shekels/month per child, 300 shekels/month extra for residents of Jerusalem and 500 shekels/month extra for Israeli Arabs.
The number of imprisoned terrorists was around 4,300 prior to Oct. 7. The additional monthly terror rewards come to at least an additional 7,630,000 shekels/month (more than $2 million) that the P.A. will pay to terrorist prisoners under P.A. law (5,450 terrorists X 1,400 shekels).
In reality, the total P.A. payment for terrorist prisoners is far higher, because these sums only represent how much single prisoners with no children receive in their first year of incarceration. It does not include an accounting for how the salaries increase over time or the additions for wives, children and Israeli residency.
Payments to new martyrs
The P.A. also counts 578 new Martyrs since Oct. 7 in the areas under its control, and it recognizes the reports by the Hamas Ministry of Health in Gaza, which have listed 38,983 Martyrs since Oct. 7.
The families of the 578 new Martyrs from P.A.-controlled territory plus those of the 38,983 new martyrs from Hamas-controlled territory are also all eligible to receive a one-time immediate grant of 6,000 shekels and a monthly allowance for life of 1,400 shekels. This makes for a one-time reward that would total 237,366,000 shekels (about $65.4 million) and a minimum of 54,576,200 shekels (about $15 million) per month, once the new martyrs are processed. After the previous Gaza war with Hamas, it took the P.A. a number of years to process and start payment.
Even if the P.A. is unable to get payment to the families of the Gaza martyrs right away, it will be registered as a debt, and PMW has shown that the P.A. does its best to pay the terror salaries as soon as possible. In February, PMW reported that the P.A. was so anxious to start rewarding newly arrested terrorists that it announced it was bypassing its own regulations and processing requirements in order to be able to pay them immediately.
Originally published by Palestinian Media Watch.
