Palestinian president stops payments to families of prisoners, martyrs

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday issued a presidential decree revoking laws and regulations related to paying allowances to the families of martyrs and prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prisons.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Abbas issued a decree “revoking the articles contained in the laws and regulations related to the system of paying financial allowances to the families of prisoners, martyrs and the wounded, in the Prisoners’ Law and the regulations issued by the Council of Ministers and the Palestine Liberation Organisations.”

The decree also stipulates that “the computerised cash assistance program, its database, and its financial, local, and international allocations will be transferred from the Ministry of Social Development to the Palestinian National Foundation for Economic Empowerment.”

Since 2019, Israel has been deducting some of the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA, claiming that these funds would be paid to the families of martyrs and prisoners, who the occupation state claim to be terrorists. In 2023, it began deducting the funds the PA pays to the Gaza Strip, pushing the PA into a financial crisis.

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