The Biden administration, weeks before leaving power, funneled more than $3 million in taxpayer cash to the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF), according to a nonpublic notice transmitted to Congress that was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Those funds allowed the PASF to conduct “firearms and ammunition” training—and came after its members carried out scores of attacks against Israelis.
The Jan. 3 funding notice outlined more than $20 million in funding for regional security projects, including those in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Jordan. Just over $3 million of these funds were earmarked for the PASF, which the United States is training to handle security operations in the war-torn Gaza Strip. As it does so, the PASF is reportedly seeking more than $680 million from the American government over the next four years.
That spending—both past and, potentially, future—is drawing concerns in both Israel and Washington, D.C., given PASF’s deep and longstanding ties to terrorism carried out against Israelis.
PASF members conducted more than 1,500 terror attacks against Israel in 2023—attacks that came with the Palestinian government’s backing, according to a Palestinian Media Watch investigation shared with the Free Beacon. More than 60 percent “of the number of Martyrs in the West Bank” are affiliated with the Palestinian Fatah movement, which sponsors the PASF, “and most of them are members of the [PA] Security Forces or their sons,” the investigation found. Nearly 400 Palestinians imprisoned for terrorism are known PASF members.
Earlier this month, for example, the PASF announced that one of its officers, Hassan Raba’iah, was killed during a standoff with Israeli forces in Jenin, a West Bank city. “Shortly thereafter, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a designated terrorist organization, announced that Hassan Raba’iah was one of its commanders,” PMW determined in an investigation.
Both the PASF and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades celebrated Raba’iah’s death in Telegram channels, that investigation found.
“With all signs of respect and pride, the Security Forces mourn their heroic Martyr son, First Lieutenant Hassan Ali Hassan Raba’iah, who was a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, who fell as a Martyr … from the occupation [Israeli] army’s gunfire while fulfilling his national duty,” the PASF said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades shared a similar statement: “With all badges of honor and resilience, full of pride and glory, the [Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades’] Rapid Response Units … mourn the Martyr, commander Hassan Ali Hassan Raba’iah … who ascended to Heaven in armed conflict with a special Israeli force.”
For Rep. Michael McCaul (R., Texas), the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the new information casts doubt on the PASF’s ability to handle future security operations in Gaza and prevent Hamas from rebuilding its terrorism empire.
“The PASF have demonstrated an ongoing inability to maintain order in the West Bank, a fact made more concerning by emerging reports of the group’s ties to terrorism in the region,” McCaul told the Free Beacon. “As everyone knows, money is fungible.”
Congress and the Trump administration, McCaul added, “must conduct rigorous oversight of this type of funding, which the Biden administration quietly noticed at the 11th hour. We must ensure taxpayer dollars are not empowering terrorists to fight our allies and undermine the very principles they’re meant to protect.”
The Trump State Department said that its ongoing freeze on all foreign assistance will help ensure that taxpayer funds are not spent on frivolous projects.
“The Department and USAID take their role as stewards of taxpayer dollars very seriously,” a State Department spokesman said. The 90-day freeze on foreign aid “furthers that mission,” according to the spokesman.
The congressional funding notice reviewed by the Free Beacon explains how U.S. taxpayer cash has empowered the PASF in part by providing “equipment and training” in the West Bank. The funds, the notice says, will help “develop the capacity of, and potentially equip, West Bank PASF units for deployment.”
A portion of the $3 million given to the PASF was earmarked for a Gazan division of the forces, “thus ensuring we could more quickly move toward larger-scale training and equipping Gazan PASF if conditions and authorities allow,” according to the notice.
The security forces are slated to be trained at Jordan’s International Police Training Center, where instruction includes “the use of ammunition and firearms.”
“Firearms and ammunition procured with funds notified in this [congressional notice] will only be used for training purposes,” the State Department informed Congress.
During his first term, President Donald Trump froze hundreds of millions in U.S. funds for the Palestinian Authority due to its support for terrorists. The Biden administration unfroze those funds, reinstating $45 million a year in funding to the PA security services. It did so, the Free Beacon reported, as internal assessments showed that the funding could boost the Iran-backed terror group Hamas.
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