A State Department notice to Congress found that the Palestinian Authority continued funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to terrorists and their families in 2025 through a rebranded system, despite public claims the payments had ended.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Palestinian Authority paid more than $200 million to terrorists and their families in 2025 despite publicly claiming it had ended the long-criticized “pay-to-slay” program, according to a State Department notice provided to Congress and reported Wednesday by the Washington Free Beacon.
According to the nonpublic State Department assessment, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced last year that the payment system rewarding terrorists and their families had been terminated. However, U.S. and Israeli intelligence found that the PA shifted the payments into a newly branded framework that continued to distribute funds under the guise of social welfare.
Israeli intelligence determined that the PA transferred approximately $144 million to terrorists and their families in 2024 and committed at least $214 million in payments extending through 2025. The State Department found that from March through August 2025, those payments continued under what the PA described as a reformed welfare system.
“The old Palestinian system of compensation for Palestinian terrorists and the families of terrorists killed in the course of committing such acts of terrorism gradually transferred responsibility for compensation to the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment (PNEEI) under the guise of social welfare,” the State Department wrote. “Despite changing the mechanism for doing so, the PA continued the payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families during the reporting period.”
The findings come as the Trump administration moves forward with the second phase of its Gaza peace plan, which bars Abbas’s government from participating in postwar governance or reconstruction programs unless it undertakes significant reforms, including fully ending pay-to-slay payments. While the Palestinian Authority does not hold a formal role in the postwar Gaza framework, Ali Shaath, the head of the newly created National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, has previously held senior positions within the PA.
The State Department notice said the PA used post offices, social media platforms, and encrypted messaging applications to notify recipients that funds were available through the rebranded system. Those actions, the department concluded, “indicat[e] clearly that compensation in support of terrorism has continued.”
In February of last year, Abbas formally ordered the termination of the pay-to-slay program, stating that welfare benefits would instead be allocated based solely on financial need rather than the length of time a relative was imprisoned in Israel for terrorism offenses. Weeks later, however, Abbas told the Fatah Revolutionary Council that “even if we only have one cent left, it will be for the prisoners and martyrs.”
“A shift to a potential welfare system without ending specific payments and benefits for Palestinian terrorists and their families is not compliant with the provisions under the Taylor Force Act,” the State Department wrote, referring to the 2018 law that suspended U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until the practice was ended. “The PA continues to provide a system of compensation in support of terrorism through a new mechanism under a different name.”
Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli nonprofit organization that tracks PA policies, reported this week that the payments appear to be continuing in areas believed to be outside direct donor oversight, including Jordan and Lebanon. According to the group, a Fatah official said earlier this month that Abbas intends to maintain payments to all recipients, even as the PA seeks to limit international scrutiny.
The State Department findings add to longstanding concerns among U.S. lawmakers and international partners that the Palestinian Authority has failed to fully dismantle the pay-to-slay system, despite repeated public assurances and years of diplomatic pressure.
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