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US: 'International donors must not be duped by this deception'
US claims PA’s prisoner payments reform a con, dismissing audit that suggested otherwise
US President Donald Trump (left) greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a summit on Gaza in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP)
By Jacob Magid
While external review found welfare payments now conditioned on financial status instead of prison sentence, State Department says it didn't examine 'clandestine bypass channels'
Demonstrators hold placards bearing portraits of Palestinians detained by Israel during a solidarity protest in Ramallah on April 7, 2026. (Zain JAAFAR / AFP)
June 11, 2026, 4:14 am
External audit finds PA no longer rewarding security prisoners — diplomats
Western officials tell ToI that global consulting firm’s initial review shows Ramallah reformed welfare program to be needs-based instead of based on time served, contradicting US report
By Jacob Magid
US President Donald Trump (left) greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a summit on Gaza in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP)
April 30, 2026, 5:02 am
US says PA continuing to pay security prisoners despite reformed welfare criteria
Citing information from Israeli government and groups critical of the Palestinian Authority, State Department informs Congress that Ramallah not meeting benchmarks for lifting sanctions
By Jacob Magid
Palestinians protest against the Palestinian Authority's prisoner payments reform outside the Prime Minister's Office in Ramallah on December 14, 2025. (Screen capture/ YouTube)
December 15, 2025, 10:32 pm
Palestinians protest PA prisoner payment reform, in apparent sign of implementation
Rallies staged in several West Bank cities over shift to stipends based on financial need instead of time served; Israel presents EU with dossier alleging reform not in place
By Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman
US President Donald Trump (left) greets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a summit on Gaza in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Evan Vucci / POOL / AFP)
December 3, 2025, 11:26 pm
US shelved sanctions on PA leaders after Abbas fired minister over prisoner payments
Ramallah believes quick dismissal of minister convinced Washington that Palestinian Authority is serious about implementation of reform to end ‘pay-for-slay,’ officials tell ToI
By Jacob Magid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas poses for a picture with his new government, after it was sworn in on March 31, 2024, in Ramallah, in the West Bank. Finance Minister Omar Bitar is standing third from the left in the front row. (Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)
November 10, 2025, 11:44 pm
Abbas fires his finance minister over illicit payments to Palestinian prisoners — sources
Palestinian official tells ToI cabinet shuffle highlights Ramallah’s commitment to implement reform ending ‘pay-to-slay,’ while Sa’ar says PA trying to ‘fool the world’
By Jacob Magid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas outside the Government Palace in Beirut, Lebanon, May 22, 2025. (AP/Hassan Ammar)
September 16, 2025, 6:26 pm
PA document shows ‘pay-to-slay’ has been scrapped, new system in place
Ramallah says 3,000 people who received stipends based on prison sentence length are now ineligible, while 2,000 households will be added under new program based on financial need
By Jacob Magid and Nurit Yohanan
Palestinians take part in a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Hebron on April 17, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
May 12, 2025, 9:26 am
Stipends end for 1,600 prisoners as PA moves forward with pay-to-slay reform — sources
Development comes weeks after Ramallah invited Trump administration to come to West Bank and certify that new welfare system in place
By Nurit Yohanan and Jacob Magid
A handout picture released by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization on November 4, 2019, shows the atomic enrichment facilities Natanz nuclear research center, some 300 kilometers south of capital Tehran. (HO / Atomic Energy Organization of Iran / AFP)
April 16, 2025, 12:32 pm
Daily Briefing Apr. 16: Day 558 – US moves Iran nuclear red line, inching closer to Israel
US bureau chief Jacob Magid updates on ongoing direct US-Iran nuclear talks, stalled hostage release negotiations and the Palestinian Authority’s effort to stop pay-for-slay terrorism
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and Jacob Magid
PLO Executive Committee member Ahmad Majdalani in his Ramallah office in 2024. (Courtesy)
March 4, 2025, 4:07 pm
Seeking funds abroad, Abbas ally touts prisoner payment reform that’s ‘unpopular’ at home
Tapped to head welfare fund replacing ‘pay-to-slay,’ Ahmad Majdalani says it’ll be strictly need-based, and should suffice for US and Israel to scrap ‘unjust’ sanctions on Ramallah
By Jacob Magid
A Palestinian pupil walks past United Nations Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA) and USAID humanitarian aid, on June 6, 2010 in the Shatie refugee camp in Gaza City. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
May 19, 2022, 3:39 am
US official: Israel ‘enthusiastic’ about Biden’s restoration of aid to Palestinians
USAID chief Samantha Power tells congressional panel that Israeli officials recognize that economic stability in West Bank and Gaza is critical after Trump cut aid
By Jacob Magid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hosts a Congressional delegation at his Ramallah office on July 8, 2021. (WAFA)
July 14, 2021, 8:40 am
US lawmakers castigated Abbas for terror payments during ‘tense’ Ramallah meet
He said families would be penniless without ‘welfare’ money; they asked if PA also pays cancer victims; opposed his call for Israel-Arab deals to wait ’til Palestinian issue solved
By Jacob Magid
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, meets with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on May 25, 2021. (Majdi Mohammed/AP)
June 23, 2021, 11:50 pm
Biden administration says it’s pushing Ramallah to reform terror payment policy
State Department official says US closely tracking requirements under Taylor Force Act; Palestinian official says Ramallah exploring alternatives to current rules for stipends
By Jacob Magid
Then-US vice president Joseph Biden, left, walks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, ahead of their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on March 10, 2010. (AP/Tara Todras-Whitehill/File)
December 31, 2020, 6:16 pm
Set to amend ‘pay to slay,’ PA hopes Biden will shun law deeming PLO ‘terrorist’
Palestinians aim to fundamentally change relationship with US when new president takes office, hope to reopen PLO office in DC, including by overcoming a US law that hinders ties
By Jacob Magid
Relatives of Palestinians held in Israeli jails hold their portraits during a protest to mark "Prisoners Day" in the West Bank city of Ramallah, April 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
November 19, 2020, 10:50 am
Palestinians mull cutting payments to some terror convicts
Move would come as part of broader strategy to resume ties with Israel and US, as President-elect Biden promises to take a more conciliatory stance toward Ramallah
By Aaron Boxerman
Security forces at the scene of a stabbing attack that killed Taylor Force and injured 10 others at the Jaffa port on March 8, 2016. (Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel, File)
June 2, 2020, 10:19 pm
US court rules Iran, Syria liable for terror attacks in Israel
Decision says countries are accountable for damages from 7 attacks carried out by Palestinians since they provided ‘material support’ to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups
By Agencies
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