PA recognizes 899 terrorists captured in Gaza as POWs, commits to pay pensions, PMW report shows

The Palestinian Authority has recognized 899 terrorists captured during the Israel-Hamas war as prisoners of war, according to a Palestinian Media Watch report on Tuesday, citing numbers from the Palestinian state-run news agency WAFA. 

The new recognition brings the total number of terrorists currently receiving payments from the PA to 9,750.

The new prisoners would add around 7 million shekels to existing payments.

According to the report, the new total salaries would amount to payments of NIS 59,560,000, or $16.4 million a month.

The cost to the PA

According to PMW, the PA pays prisoners NIS 1,400 per month for the first three years of imprisonment. After 30 years, a salary can reach NIS 12,000. 

Prisoners with wives and children also receive various stipends. In addition, prisoners from east Jerusalem and Israeli Arabs are granted additional funds. 

The PA also signaled that it was willing to pay out to nearly 39,000 additional "martyrs" in the Gaza Strip, who would be eligible for a one-time payment of 6,000 shekels and a monthly allowance of 1,400 shekels for life.

PMW estimated that this would lead to a 237,366,000 shekel payout for the one-time payments and would effectively double the monthly payout, adding 54,576,200 shekels to the bill. 

This would add an increased financial burden on the PA, which has struggled financially, with civil servants only receiving 50% of their salaries while terrorists continue to receive a full stipend.

Israeli politicians have been pushing for a full financial collapse by removing access to taxes collected by Israel and penalizing banks that supply funds for the PA.

The World Bank and the US have expressed concern that a financial collapse of the PA would only worsen the conflict.