The newly formed Palestinian Authority (PA) government in the West Bank territory announced it would distribute bonus payments to security forces responsible for attacks on Israeli citizens and military targets. Just days earlier, President Joe Biden‘s State Department declared its support for the newly formed West Bank government, stating they looked forward to working with the PA “to deliver on credible reforms.”
“Service Director in Jenin Adnan Abu Aisheh said that the message of the service, under the instructions of its leader, Majed Faraj, is to emphasize what President Mahmoud Abbas has said again and again — that if we are left with one penny, it will be paid to the families of the martyrs and the prisoners,” Palestine News Agency WAFA reported. On April 4, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service issued grant payouts to 36 families whose relatives were killed or arrested in the course of committing crimes against Israelis.
The PA’s announcement comes as a blow to the Biden government‘s initiative to elevate the West Bank government as the legitimate authority over a separate Palestinian state as part of a potential peace process. State Department officials have insisted the PA be reformed and given governing control over the Gaza Strip after Israel’s military operations against the Hamas terrorist group there conclude. Former President Donald Trump suspended American taxpayer funding of the Palestinian Authority. The Biden government subsequently reinstated the aid.
West Bank Palestinian officials have repeatedly refused to condemn the barbaric October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. Some of the newly ‘reformed’ PA members have even gone so far as to endorse continued acts of terrorism against the Jewish state.
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