“We didn’t stop” Pay-for-Slay – Fatah spokesman
The Fatah spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Mundhir Al-Hayek, has now confirmed what Palestinian Media Watch has documented all along—the Palestinian Authority has rejected the US demand to stop Pay-for-Slay: "We did not stop the payment of salaries."
Most outrageous is Al-Hayek's description of a "revolving door" for the payments: rather than end terror salaries, as the US and other Western countries have demanded as a basic condition for PA reform, the Palestinian leadership has sought to mislead the West while finding ways to keep the money flowing to terrorists and their families, including recipients in Gaza. One method the Fatah spokesman cited is the PA's use of powers of attorney so someone in PA-controlled areas can collect the money for a Gaza recipient and transfer it onward.
In other words, the PA's difficulty is not deciding whether terrorists and their families should continue receiving money. The difficulty is finding a way to get them the money, and the Palestinian leadership is actively seeking circuitous ways to keep the payments hidden from the US.
PMW has repeatedly exposed the PA's sham claim that it ended its notorious Pay-for-Slay program. Now, a leader of Fatah, the PA's ruling party, has exposed the deception from within, while admitting his own involvement in keeping the payments flowing and misleading the West.
Alam Radio host: "Regarding the reforms, how many of the required reforms has the PA completed so far? Is the American administration satisfied so far with what it has completed?"
Fatah Spokesman in the Gaza Strip Mundhir Al-Hayek: "What the US is asking for regarding stopping the payment of salaries to prisoners and Martyrs (i.e., terrorists) and changing the Palestinian [school] curricula is something that unfortunately we, as Palestinians, do not accept..."
Host: "But regarding the salaries of the Martyrs and prisoners, [indeed] the payment of salaries to many of them has been stopped?"
Al-Hayek: "No, the tax money was stolen [by Israel] so that the salaries would not reach the families of the Martyrs and our prisoners and wounded. The PA does not have a budget to even pay the salaries of the [public] employees. Therefore, when Israel and the US realized there was a revolving door for paying the salaries of the Martyrs and prisoners, we did not stop the payment of salaries…"
Host: "The [PA] President [Abbas'] words regarding the salaries of the prisoners and Martyrs today were clear, and some of them [the salaries] were transferred to [the PA Ministry] for Social Development according to the institution-"…
Al-Hayek: "The PNEEI [Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution]. Now we, the Palestinian leadership, are holding discussions. It is very exhausting for us, here in the Gaza Strip, because there are Martyrs, wounded, and prisoners, and their number is large. In the contacts we are making, the discussion always revolves around the method of paying the salaries. Sometimes there is something called power of attorney, where a person from Gaza authorizes a person from the West Bank to receive his salary from the institutions – the PNEEI institution and others, and the Ministry of [Social] Development – and then the salary is transferred. It is a complicated matter [making] the salaries reach the families of the Martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners, and sometimes the salaries do not arrive… This whole matter was determined by the US and Israel so that the salaries would not reach our Martyrs – the families of our Martyrs – our wounded and our prisoners. The situation is really difficult."
[Alam radio station, YouTube channel, Aug. 23, 2026]
Fatah has now provided unusually candid confirmation. Not only do the payments continue, but the Palestinian leadership is actively working through "revolving doors" and other ways to ensure they reach the terrorists despite US demands and efforts to stop them.
A final question remains: Why does the PA continue to defy the US on Pay-for-Slay when it desperately needs American support, both financially and for any future role in Gaza?
The answer may lie in a story PMW published just last week. A released Palestinian prisoner stated candidly on PA TV that if the PA stops paying terror salaries, it will become impossible to recruit new terrorists.
That admission helps explain why the PA is so determined to keep the payments flowing. And for Western governments that are funding the PA on the promise of Abbas' claimed reform, Fatah's comments should put an end to the illusion.