The Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund is a financial program operated by the Palestinian Authority (PA). It operates through two main channels: The Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs that provides monthly financial support to the families of Palestinians who were killed, injured, or detained in connection with acts of violence against Israelis; and the Prisoners Fund that delivers payments to Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons. As of 2018, the stipends amounted to $330 million, or 7% of the PA's annual budget.
Critics often call the fund "pay for slay" and blame the payments for "encouraging terrorism". In 2007, the World Bank argued that the fund did "not seem justified from a welfare or fiscal perspective."
By 2014, mounting criticism of the payments led to the PA transferring management of the Martyrs Fund to the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which now disburses the government-funding to recipients and their families. On 10 February 2025, PA president Mahmoud Abbas signed a decree to end the Martyrs Fund to provide stipends based on financial need. As of October 2025, Israeli authorities alleged that evidence indicated the fund was still active. According to the US State Department, the Palestinian Authority continued the fund under a different name.
History Early development Palestinian movement Fatah established the Palestine Mujahidin and Martyrs Fund in 1964 to recompense the families of dead and wounded Palestinian fedayeen militants. In 1971, this fund was replaced by the Society for the Care of Palestinian Martyrs and Prisoners. The Society classified "military martyrs" broadly, including not only fedayeen killed during military operations, but also those who died of natural causes while on active service. Their families received cash stipends. Non-members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who died in encounters with Israeli security forces received one-time payments, creating incentives for families to posthumously apply to reclassify their deceased relatives as fighters.
Various funding agencies have managed these payments over the decades, including the "Fund for Families of Martyrs and the Injured." SAMED, the Palestine Martyrs Works Society, was founded in 1970, and took on some responsibility for martyr payments while also providing employment in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon throughout the 1970s.
Formalization and controversy The payments were routinized during the Second Intifada (2000–2005). However, the question of which Palestinian factions' militants from all political factions would receive payments from the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been highly contested. PA President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew such payments for PLO-affiliated prisoners, but restored them in 2009. The PA government has claimed it does not make payments to families of prisoners belonging to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
US Sanctions and public end of program After Joe Biden's election as U.S. president in 2020, Palestinian officials reportedly expressed willingness to modify the payment system. The proposed change would base stipends on prisoners' financial need rather than sentence length, which would bring the PA into compliance with the 2018 Taylor Force Act. This Act had suspended U.S. aid to the PA as long as it continued making payments to prisoners, including those convicted of attacks against Israeli civilians, and families of those killed fighting Israelis.
On 10 February 2025, Abbas signed a degree reportedly ending the Martyrs Fund. The new system based stipends to families solely on financial need, a move described as a goodwill gesture toward the new Donald Trump administration. This decision faced internal criticism, notably from Qadura Fares, head of the PA's Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. Fares was subsequently fired by Abbas on 18 February. Hamas characterized Fares' dismissal as "submission to Zionist and American dictates."
In October 2025, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar and Palestinian Media Watch watchdog alleged that the PA had not ended financing the Fund, but instead changed the mode of its delivery by channeling payments to recipients through the Palestinian postal system. The watchdog concluded from social media conversations that payments were still being received by comparing stated amounts to previously publicly known received amounts. Local telegram channels published that "the salaries of the prisoners, the wounded, and the Martyrs have arrived at the post office".
In February 2026, the US State Department stated that the Palestinian Authority had continued the fund under a different name, providing $200 million to militants and their families in 2025. Palestinian Media Watch also reported that the PA are expected to continue the fund with $315 million in 2026.
Structure and operations The PA distributes payments through two primary funds: The Prisoners Fund makes payments to individuals imprisoned by Israel ("prisoner payments") The Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs ("Martyrs Fund"), under the PA's Ministry of Social Affairs, provides financial support to families of individuals wounded or killed during confrontations with Israel.
Both funds operate under the PLO umbrella but receive their funding from the PA, which employs over 500 bureaucrats.
Budget These payments, total more than $300 million annually, representing approximately 7 percent of the PA's annual budget.
In 2017, the payment system allocated: $160 million was paid to 13,000 beneficiaries of "prisoner payments" (averaging $12,307 per person) $183 million was paid to 33,700 families in about in "martyr payments" (averaging $5,430 per family) annually
Of the total amount: $36 million went to prisoners serving sentences of more than 20 years $10 million to former members of the security forces $1 million to families of 200 suicide bombers $10 million to the families of the Palestinians with life terms, lengthy sentences, and in the security forces
In 2016, $173 million in "martyr payments" supported 35,100 families, including the families of suicide bombers, according to Palestinian figures. The stipend is higher than the average Palestinian wage.
In 2025, a decree mandated that payments would be transferred to a government body affiliated with the president's office, implementing a new disbursement mechanism, though specific details have not yet been announced.
Foundation for the Care of the Families of Martyrs Between January 1995 and June 2002, the fund distributed NIS 16 million to families of prisoners annually, and between June 2002 to June 2004 NIS 88.5 million annually.
As of 2016, the fund had an annual budget of $173 million and supported approximately 35,100 families, according to Palestinian figures. Stipends are paid to families of both prisoners and Palestinians killed in contexts ranging from political demonstrations that turn violent where protesters are killed by non-lethal riot control methods (such as being hit by a tear gas canister) and to individuals imprisoned for "common crimes".
According to the fund's head Intisar al-Wazir, each family of a deceased individual received a base stipend of 1,400 NIS ($350), with additional amounts provided based on marital status and number of children:
Married recipients received an additional $100 Each child added $50 to the monthly payment Children received support until age 18 or until they began working University students received support until graduation
Families of individuals killed by Israeli security forces typically received stipends of $800 to $1,000 per month, while families of convicted Palestinians serving time in Israeli prisons received $3,000 or more per month.
In 2017, the National Association of the Martyrs' Families of Palestine advocated for cost of living increases in their stipends, which had remained unchanged since 2011.
In June 2021, the PA paid the family of a Palestinian who murdered two Israelis 30,000 Jordanian dinars ($42,000) to "complete the payment of the price" of the family's house that was demolished by the IDF.
Prisoners fund The payment system for Palestinian prisoners is codified in Palestinian law. Under the Amended Palestinian Prisoners Law No. 19 (2004), prisoners who have served a year or more in Israeli prison are entitled upon release to health insurance and tuition-free school, university and professional education. If they become civil servants, the law stipulates that the Palestinian Authority will "pay his social security and pension fees... for the years he spent in prison." Incarcerated individuals are entitled to monthly stipends "linked to the cost-of-living index." Amendments in 2013 entitle individuals released from prison a preference in getting jobs with the Palestinian Authority, and stipulates that the PA "will make up the difference" if the civil service salary "is lower than the salary he received in prison." Females who have served 2 years in prison, and males who have served 5 are entitled to receive stipends for the rest of their lives. The fund also pays $106 a month in "canteen money" to imprisoned Palestinians, including those imprisoned for non-political crimes such as car theft and drug dealing. These payments totaled more than $10 million to support purchases for food and clothing in 2018. Hakim Awad, who perpetrated the 2011 Itamar attack, receives $14,000 per year, and can expect to receive more than $1.9 million over the length of his incarceration if he lived to be 80 years old.
In 2016, the fund for Palestinian prisoners had a budget of $125 million, according to the Palestinian Finance Ministry. PLO Commissioner for Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr stated that the PLO paid as much as $181 million in salaries to imprisoned Palestinians in 2020. The PLO supported about 7,500 released prisoners and 4,500 currently detained prisoners. NGO Palestinian Media Watch had previously estimated the 2020 payments at $159 million.
Hamas payments Hamas has operated a separate fund for years predating its takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. In 2001, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, boasted that Hamas payments to the families of prisoners and of suicide bombers totaled between $2 and $3 million. According to a 2001 report by the Israeli government, the families of prisoners received an initial lump sum payment of between $500 and $5,000, with monthly stipends of about $100, with higher payments for the families of Hamas members.
Role in Palestinian society
The so-called "martyr payments" are "exceedingly popular" among Palestinians and have been described as "part of the ethos of Palestinian society." Support for the payments among Palestinians is as high as 91%. According to Ziad Asali, founding president of the pro-Palestinian American Task Force on Palestine, Palestinian politicians and the media have elevated these payments to the point where they are "sacred in Palestinian politics," and no government dares terminate the practice. Professor Nathan Brown of George Washington University says that the stipends to prisoner's families are "universally supported among Palestinians."
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club defends the stipends; the club's leader, Qadura Fares, maintains that payments supporting the families of prisoners are just because the families, "are a part of our people" and that "the family did nothing against anyone." According to Fares, the attacks for which the prisoners were convicted are "not terror," but "part of the struggle" against Israel.