Palestinian banks refuse to distribute the $10 million grant from Qatar meant for terrorist's salaries
Headline: “[PA Prime Minister Muhammad] Shtayyeh: Gaza’s problem is political, we must launch a political path that relies on the international institutions’ resolutions, which will lead to removing the blockade and the end of the occupation”
“[PA] Prime Minister [Muhammad Shtayyeh] said in his speech at the beginning of the [PA] government’s weekly meeting that was held yesterday [Sept. 13, 2021] in Ramallah: ‘In light of the re-arrest of four of the prisoners who succeeded in liberating themselves from Gilboa Prison and in light of the talk on the topic (refers to escape of six terrorist prisoners; see note below -Ed.), I call on all the civilians not to hurl hasty accusations at our people in the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel; refers to how some Israeli Arabs reported on the fugitive terrorists). We are members of one people, and the pain, suffering, common goal, and fate unite us.’ …
On another matter, the [PA] Prime Minister commented on the statements by [Alternate] Israeli Prime Minister [Yair Lapid] regarding an economic plan in exchange for security for the Gaza Strip. He [Shtayyeh] said: ‘Gaza’s problem is a political problem, and it is the same problem that all the Palestinian territories including Jerusalem are dealing with. We must launch a serious and true political path that relies on the international institutions’ resolutions and international law, which will lead to the end of the occupation and to the removal of the blockade from the Gaza Strip and will stop the aggression against all the Palestinian territories. In this way the process of rehabilitation will become possible and sustainable.’
Regarding the Qatari grant, the prime minister explained that it was divided into three parts:
The first is $10 million is to purchase fuel for the Gaza power station through the UN, which has already been done. The second, also at a cost of $10 million, will be distributed by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) over four months. This has already been done…
The third part of the grant, whose cost is $10 million, will be paid as salaries to employees [including terrorist salaries] in the Gaza Strip.He noted that all the Palestinian banks refused to deal with this part, out of fear of legal persecution (refers to the application of much of Israel's Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank, including rendering banks liable to punishment for facilitating PA terror salaries -Ed.). He welcomed any effort to solve this matter.”
2021 Gilboa Prison escape – 6 Palestinian terrorist prisoners escaped from Israel's Gilboa Prison on Sept. 6, 2021, by widening the hole of the shower drainpipe in the floor of their cell. One terrorist is from Fatah - Zakariya Zubeidi, and the other five are from Islamic Jihad - Ayham Kamamji, Muhammad Ardah, Mahmoud Ardah, Yaqub Qaderi, and Munadil Nafiyat. Four of the terrorists were recaptured after five days: Zubeidi, Ardah, Ardah, and Qaderi. Kamamji and Nafiyat were arrested in Jenin on Sept. 18, 2021 along with two accomplices. Zubeidi was head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) in the Jenin area during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), when he oversaw numerous lethal attacks, and he also carried out shooting attacks in 2018-2019. Kamamji participated in the murder of 18-year-old Eliyahu Asheri on June 25, 2006, and planned to blow up a bus using an exploding car. Muhammad Ardah participated in initiating and executing a suicide bombing on bus no. 823 on Nov. 29, 2001, in which 3 people were murdered and many others were wounded. Mahmoud Ardah was involved in numerous attacks; the website of Islamic Jihad’s military wing defined him as the "commander" of the prison escape. Qaderi committed a shooting attack on Sept. 18, 2002 with an accomplice in which Israeli Yosef Ajami was murdered and a foreign worker was wounded. Nafiyat was being held in administrative detention.
In presenting his plan for economic aid to the Gaza Strip on Sept. 12, 2021, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid said: “The political conditions – in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority – don’t allow for diplomatic progress at the moment, but in Gaza we can, and we should, act now… The solution presented here doesn’t address the two-state solution, but my opinion on the matter is well known: Israel needs to act to strengthen the Palestinian Authority and to negotiate with it with an aim of achieving a two-state solution.”
Israeli army legislation which applies parts of Israel's 2016 Anti-Terror Law to the West Bank (taking effect on May 9, 2020). The law prohibits numerous terror related offenses, including terror funding/rewarding and holds heads of terror organizations responsible for murder committed by members of the organization. The law criminalizes the provision of funds for or the payment of rewards for the commission of terrorist offenses, such as the salaries the PA pays to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners. The provision also applies to any person or body - such as a bank - that facilitates such funding or rewarding of terror offenses. Based on this last provision, PMW sent letters in April 2020 to the heads of banks in the PA areas warning them that they must freeze the accounts of terrorists and their proxies and transfer them to the Israeli army or face legal consequences.