Palestinians up Pay of Terrorists Who Killed Nine as Israel Halts Funds over 'Pay-For-Slay'

The Palestinian Authority marked the 20th anniversary of a deadly attack at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by increasing its monthly payments to the terrorists responsible, a media watchdog said Sunday.

The news comes as Israel’s security cabinet voted to withhold almost $180 million from the Palestinian Authority over its “pay-for-slay” scheme rewarding convicted terrorists and their families a monthly salary.

The cafeteria bombing on July 31, 2002, on the university campus in Jerusalem killed 9 people and injured more than 80.

The PA raised the salaries of the terrorists behind it, Wael Qassem, Wassim Abbasi, Alla Aldin Abbasi and Muhammed Odeh, by 14.29 percent, Palestinian Media Watch reported.

The four will now receive an an additional NIS 1000 per month, from NIS 7,000 ($2,251) per month to NIS 8,000 ($2,572). The payout has amounted to more than NIS 8 million (over $2.5 million) over the years. The PA’s policy allows for the increase in salary according to the gravity of the attack. In other words, the more Israelis die, the larger the payout.

Also on Sunday, the Security Cabinet voted to freeze NIS 600 million from the taxes Israel collects on behalf of the PA, in accordance with a 2018 law.

Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hailed two terrorists who were killed by Israeli troops as “heroes,” telling their families in a phone call this week that the nation of “Palestine” was in mourning for them.

In a video circulating on social media, Abbas is heard assuring the fathers of Abderahman Jamal Sobah and Mohammed al-Azizi that their sons “will reach heaven together with the other martyrs.”

Sobah and al-Azizi, who recently carried out a string of shooting attacks against Israelis, were killed during a shootout with IDF troops in the West Bank city of Nablus.

“We are all mourning,” Abbas told the fathers. “That is our fate and we can’t escape it. We must make sacrifices for the homeland.”

“May God bless all martyrs.”

Abbas has in the past vowed that his government will continue to pay salaries to terrorists and their families even if “we have only a penny left.”