Israel: court orders PA to compensate family of settlers killed in resistance operation

The Jerusalem District Court has ordered the Palestinian Authority to pay approximately 46 million shekels ($12.3m) in compensation to three Israelis whose family members were killed in the 2001 Sbarro restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, Israel Hayom has reported.

The newspaper said that the court’s ruling marks the first application of a new Israeli law enacted in March 2024, which states that any entity deemed to “support terrorism” must pay punitive damages of $2.7m for each fatality and $1.35m for each injury resulting from such acts. At the time, the PA challenged the law, describing it as both “unconstitutional and void”.

The law stems from a 2022 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that held the PA accountable for acts of resistance, even when it was not directly involved, due to its practice of providing stipends to the families of Palestinian resistance fighters killed or imprisoned by the occupation state.

On Tuesday, the Jerusalem District Court obligated the PA to pay 10m shekels for each fatality and an additional six million shekels for “classic” damages, including pain and suffering, shortened life expectancy and lost wages, plus legal costs and other expenses.

In June and July, 195 Israelis who were injured in Palestinian attacks or who had relatives killed in resistance operations filed lawsuits in Israeli courts, seeking a total of about $1.4 billion in financial compensation.

In response, the Palestinian Authority has filed a petition seeking to annul the two Israeli laws, arguing that they “violate the economic sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority and represent an economic annexation of its funds.”

Since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, Israel has been deducting more than $160m per month from tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA, which total $200m. As a result, the Palestinian government has struggled to pay full salaries to its employees or settle debts owed to the private sector. This is not the first instance of Israel withholding Palestinian tax revenues as a means to “compensate families of Israelis killed or injured in Palestinian operations.”

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