JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar has vociferously condemned the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its controversial “Pay-for-Slay” program, following a recent attack that claimed the lives of two Israelis. Sa’ar accused the PA of fostering terrorism through financial incentives.

The tragic incident unfolded on Friday in northern Israel, resulting in the deaths of 19-year-old Aviv Maor from Kibbutz Ein Harod and 68-year-old Mordechai Shimshon from Beit She’an. Both individuals were killed by a Palestinian assailant, reigniting discussions around the PA’s contentious policy.

The “Pay-for-Slay” program gained significant notoriety after the brutal murder of Taylor Force, a West Point graduate who had served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Force was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on March 8, 2016, while visiting Israel. His tragic death prompted a campaign led by his parents, Robbi and Stuart Force, which culminated in the enactment of the Taylor Force Act. This legislation was signed into law by President Donald Trump in October 2018, aiming to curb financial support to the PA until it ends the practice of rewarding terrorism.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces continued their investigations at the scene of the attack in Afula, northern Israel, where the assailant used a vehicle in what was suspected to be a coordinated car-ramming and stabbing assault. The incident occurred on December 26, 2025, as reported by Gil Eliyahu for Reuters.

Before the recent attacks, Sa’ar had been vocal in alerting the international community about the alleged duplicity of Palestinian leadership. In a statement on social media platform X, he warned: “Don’t believe Mahmoud Abbas’ lies. The Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and their families haven’t stopped. The PA decided to continue its ‘Pay-for-Slay’ policy. This includes payments to the families of ‘martyrs’ and injured terrorists, jailed terrorists, and released terrorists. The PA is also disguising the payments to the released murderers as payments to pensioners of the Palestinian Security Services. This is distorted. End ‘Pay-for-Slay’ now!”

Abbas is the 90-year-old chain-smoking president of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (the region is known in Israel by its biblical names of Judea and Samaria.)

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, told Fox News Digital that contrary to Palestinian Authority claims about stopping the “Pay-for-Slay” program, there has been “no substantial change in Palestinian Authority policy with regard to the payments to terrorists.”

Taylor Force was a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was pursuing his MBA at Vanderbilt University. His bright future was savagely cut short on March 8, 2016, when Taylor was walking with his Vanderbilt friends along the Mediterranean boardwalk promenade in Tel Aviv, Israel. A Palestinian terrorist attacked the group with a knife, and Taylor was stabbed to death. (Courtesy of the Force Family)

He continued that “They are making noises as if they are changing their policies.” But he termed it a “façade” with no change in policy.

Michael said that “Pay-for-Slay will continue in a different manner. Donors and the international community [who finance the PA] will find it more difficult to monitor it.”

The counter-terrorism expert, Michael, who is also a fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, said the PA “defines terrorists as social welfare. They continue to support incitement against Israel. They continue remaining dysfunctional.”

According to a Dec. 19 report in the Times of Israel, a PA-linked organization –The Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (also known as Tamkeen) — disputed the Israeli government claim that “Pay-for Slay” is still intact.

Tamkeen noted in its statement that it “confirms that the payment system linked to the number of years of imprisonment has been completely and permanently abolished and is no longer in effect in any way.” It added that “Claims regarding its continuation fall under the category of deliberate misinformation and falsification of facts.”

Fox News Digital reached out numerous times to the Palestinian Authority for a comment and sent press queries to the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution (Tamkeen.)

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with then-President Joe Biden in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, Friday, July 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

When asked by Fox News Digital what donor nations can do to stop “Pay-for-Slay,” Michael said, “Be strict when it comes to financial donations,” adding there are “many ways to pressure the Palestinian Authority.”

He sharply criticized Western European leaders who recognized an independent Palestinian state in 2025 without ensuring that the state would be a non-sponsor of terrorism. “Western leaders, the British prime minister, the French president and the Spanish prime minister are rushing and running to recognize a Palestinian state, and they don’t care what takes place under the Palestinian Authority in the territories.” He said their recognition is “an incentive to continue to ‘Pay for Slay.”’

Michael said the Trump administration is the only one “applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority.”

A Palestinian terrorist from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is seen carrying a weapon during a military parade in the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. (Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

He stressed that if the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hamas is not dismantled and disarmed in Gaza, “it will be another achievement of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.”

The U.S. State Department and American Embassy in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital press queries.