RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has issued a decree overturning a system of payments to the families of Palestinians imprisoned or killed by Israeli forces that has been a longstanding source of friction with the United States.
The current system has been dubbed “pay for slay” by critics who say it rewards the families of militants who carry out attacks on Israel, although that label is rejected by Palestinians.
Payments will be transferred to a government body affiliated with the president’s office, according to the text of the decree, with a new disbursement mechanism, details of which have so far not been announced.
Scrapping the system has been a major demand of successive US administrations on the Palestinian Authority, the body set up three decades ago under the Oslo interim peace accords which exercises limited governance in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The decision comes as the Palestinian Authority faces mounting financial pressure from a slowdown in aid, a squeeze on a system of tax revenue transfers by Israel and a slump in contributions from Palestinians who have been shut out of the Israeli labor market by the war in Gaza.
Israel has been deducting the payments made by the authority from taxes collected on its behalf from goods that cross its territory to Palestinian areas.
The Palestinian Authority has appealed for more aid from Arab and European states to make up for the shortfall of billions of shekels but has so far struggled to make headway.
Palestinian president scraps prisoner payment system criticized by US
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Palestinian president scraps prisoner payment system criticized by US
- Move was a response to a long-standing request from Washington
UN chief says those behind ‘unacceptable’ Homs attack must face justice
- France says the "terror" attack is designed to destabilize the country
UNITED NATIONS/PARIS: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the deadly attack on Friday prayers at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs, and said the perpetrators should be brought to justice.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable. He stresses that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Homs, with an Islamist militant group claiming responsibility.
France also condemned the attack, calling it an “act of terrorism” designed to destabilize the country.
The attack “is part of a deliberate strategy aimed at destabilizing Syria and the transition government,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
It condemned what it said was an attempt to “compromise ongoing efforts to bring peace and stability.”
The attack, during Friday prayers, was the second blast in a place of worship since Islamist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.
In a statement on Telegram, the extremist group Saraya Ansar Al-Sunna said its fighters “detonated a number of explosive devices” in the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the central Syrian city.
