Palestinian Authority terrorist factions are finding themselves unable to pay the salaries of their leaders and members, let alone cover their operational budgets, due to cessation of funding from Iran, according to a report Sunday by the Palestinian Authority ‘Al Quds‘ news outlet.
“The crisis extends inside and outside [the Palestinian Authority] and affected the institutions of the factions abroad as well as internally, especially the Gaza Strip,” the news outlet reported.
Gaza’s leading Hamas terrorist organization and its primary ally, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, are both heavily funded by Iran, as it Tehran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. But it appears the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades based in the Palestinian Authority, is also funded by the Iranian mullahs.
Unnamed sources quoted by Al Quds said Iran stopped pumping money into the terrorist factions three months ago “for unknown reasons [that] may be related to the internal events taking place in the country.” The Iranian government has been struggling to contain and extinguish a growing, months-long anti-mullah protest movement within the Islamic Republic.
Factions and military groups in Gaza and those affiliated with the Palestinian Authority’s leading faction, Fatah, are among those that depend mainly on Iranian funding, the news outlet confirmed.
Fatah is headed by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, who claimed this weekend in a televised interview that he does not endorse armed resistance against Israel, at least at present. The interview, which aired December 7 on the Al Arabiya news network, was translated and uploaded to the internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
Abbas has repeatedly vowed he will never eliminate his government’s generous monthly payments to terrorists incarcerated for attacks on Israelis, and the families of those whose loved ones were killed while trying to kill Jews.
There is a “clear inability to provide operational budgets, even at the minimum level, to meet the needs of those institutions, including the media,” Al Quds reported. “Some institutions affiliated with some factions may stop working due to their inability to even pay electricity bills.”
