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October 9, 2026: Hamas, a militant and aggressive Palestinian terrorist militia, has been around since the 1980s. Hamas is a perennial loser in its battles with Israel, including the one it is currently engaged in. One exception was the October 2023 surprise attack that had three thousand armed Hamas members leave their Gaza hiding places and attack unprepared Israelis. Over a thousand Israelis and foreigners in the area for a music festival were killed. This was the largest number of Jews killed in a single incident since the World War II Nazi German efforts to eradicate all Jews.
Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank were long-time rivals for Palestinian leadership. Neither could overcome the other and form a united Palestinian government. That changed with the October 2023 attack, when Hamas took the initiative but failed to overcome Fatah’s nominal government in the West Bank. The Gaza population is 2,229,000 Palestinians compared to 9.7 million for Israel. Gaza is 365 square kilometers compared to 22,145 for Israel.
How many Palestinians belong to Hamas has always been a guessing game. October 2023 confirmed at least three thousand active Hamas members. The problem is that Hamas recruiting is very informal and effective. Any Palestinian can walk into a known Hamas location, which can be a café or some retail establishment, announce their willingness to join Hamas and offer, if necessary, to fight and die for the cause. Hamas will often hand the recruit a weapon. These are usually AK-47 assault rifles and RPG rocket launchers. Both weapons regularly appear in Arabic-language movies, TV shows, and propaganda films. By the time Palestinian children are teenagers, they know all about these weapons and how to use them. If there is a crisis, the Palestinians on the Hamas membership list go to a location and get their rifle or rocket launcher.
This enables Palestinian leaders to call up many armed members on short notice. More organized operations, like the October 2023 attack, required extensive planning. Many of these Palestinian gunmen had received some specialist training, just in case. Hamas leaders did their work and then used the standard Hamas mobilization system to quickly organize a force of armed Hamas members from the local Palestinian population. Many of the Palestinian gunmen for the October 2023 attacks were not aware of a major attack until they were called out by their Hamas leaders. Some Hamas fighters had been assigned to get vehicles to take down fences and get Hamas gunmen somewhere fast.
Hamas turned pre-planned improvisation into a formidable tactic that caused a lot of Israeli casualties but ultimately failed when the better-trained, armed, and led IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) showed up. The IDF quickly killed a lot of the Hamas irregulars, and the October 2023 offensive faded away.
Surviving Hamas members back in Gaza spent more time in the tunnel network they had built during a more than a decade-long effort. Hamas used foreign aid sent by the United States and other nations to build and then rebuild their tunnel system under Gaza. Years of effort have produced hundreds of kilometers of tunnels. Many of the tunnels were wired for electricity. They got power from above-ground generators or by plugging into home or commercial business supplies. Many Palestinians made a career of working in and on the tunnels.
When the IDF recently set out to destroy the tunnel system, they were shocked at how extensive it was and how resistant it was to attack. In some tunnels, there were blast doors to protect against the IDF's use of explosives to reach a blocked portion of a tunnel. The Israelis were also surprised at the comfortable quarters for Hamas personnel and leaders. Some tunnels were equipped as administrative offices, while others served as meeting rooms or offices for senior Hamas leaders.
The Israelis soon realized that there was a Hamas town and military installation under Gaza. The IDF is, as of late 2026, still fighting its way through the Hamas tunnel network under Gaza. IDF troops were trained for house-to-house fighting and adapted those tactics to underground tunnel battles.
Hamas is but one of many Arab Palestinian groups seeking the destruction of Israel. The Arabs have come up with some novel ways to divert foreign aid money into their self-destructive cause. During the last fifteen years, the Palestinian Authority has spent over $5 billion on pay-for-slay – providing death benefits to the families of Arabs who are imprisoned or die killing, or trying to kill, Jews. At one point, the Americans threatened to halt $336 million in aid to the PA/Palestinian Authority if the Palestinians did not halt their Pay-for-slay program. Recent payments were substantial, with some Palestinian terrorists receiving over a million dollars. The most recent payment totaled $142 million for 738 Palestinian terrorists. That averages $193,000 per terrorist.
In 2025, the PA continued using its Pay for Slay program to reward Palestinian terrorists. Since October 2023, the PA has declared nearly 10,000 imprisoned Palestinian and Hamas terrorists as eligible for Pay for Slay money. The PA also recognized an additional 39,000 families of dead terrorists as eligible for Pay for Slay payments. While the PA agreed to the American demands, it is believed it would find a way to make the payments.
The Palestinians responded by establishing a foundation to handle the money. The foundation is still run by Palestinians who simply deny any involvement with the Pay for Slay effort. The foundation purportedly dispenses money to needy Palestinians, but all of them just happen to be needy terrorists. The Americans have been through this before, and this time the PA's deceptions may not work.
The PA has long used foreign aid money to run its pay-for-slay program. Since the 1970s, the PA has diverted nearly half a billion dollars in foreign aid to pay Palestinian terrorists for killing Israeli civilians and soldiers. There is an elaborate system for paying the families of dead Palestinian terrorists as well as lesser payments for those imprisoned for attacks on Israelis.
Foreign donors eventually learned of this program, which used money donated for the welfare of Palestinian civilians. Donors tried to enforce rules prohibiting cash payments for pay-for-slay programs. The PA keeps finding ways to circumvent these restrictions and continue making terrorism profitable for Palestinians. PA leaders take a portion of the aid for themselves as a reward for continuing to deceive foreign donors.
In 2019, the Palestinian Fatah government threatened to cause an economic catastrophe by refusing partial payments from Israel and donor nations unless everyone stopped deducting the money Fatah spends on supporting and encouraging terrorist activity. In 2018, Israel passed a law to deduct Pay for Slay payments from the $130 million a month it collects in taxes and fees for the Palestinians in the West Bank. Despite that, Fatah paid over $20 million to Palestinian terrorists in prison or to their families for deceased terrorists. The Americans had already enacted a similar law and was deducting a similar amount from the $300 million it currently gives to the West Bank Palestinians. Other foreign donors have taken similar measures.
Fatah complains that America, Israel, and other donors are being unfair. Yet it is no secret that many Palestinians become terrorists because they are attracted to the financial rewards, which are considerable for many impoverished Palestinians impoverished by Fatah corruption and incompetence. Palestinians who are jailed, injured, or killed while trying to kill Israelis receive large payments from Fatah. For example, families of dead terrorists get an immediate payment of $1,700 from Fatah plus monthly payments for the life of the immediate family. These monthly payments range from $400 to over $1,000, depending on the number of wives and children, and can make a family relatively affluent and open new opportunities, like enough cash to afford a smuggler who can get one or more family members to the West. Fatah also pays legal residents of Israel an $86 monthly bonus, and a similar bonus to residents of Jerusalem. Fatah currently pays about $200 million a year to the families.
Monthly payments to jailed Palestinians vary according to how long they have been in jail, how many dependents they have, and so on. There are also bonuses for how many Israelis the prisoner killed or injured. Some of these convicts get over $50,000 a year. Fatah currently spends nearly $200 million a year to reward over 6,000 jailed terrorists. Fatah considers this payment program a success even though hundreds of Palestinians have died in the Fatah-promoted violence. These attacks also left a growing number of Israelis dead, and for Fatah that is political gold as far as Arab language media is concerned.
With this approach, Fatah and Hamas together currently spend over $400 million a year to make murder economically attractive to many young Palestinians. Most of it comes from Fatah, although Hamas is trying to make more payments to Palestinians in the West Bank who support Hamas and attack Israelis in the name of Hamas. The Arab language media throughout the Middle East take for granted that these payments are just and necessary for the war against Israel.
In response to the current American and Israeli efforts to penalize Fatah for what is spent to encourage terror attacks, Fatah made it clear it would not halt payments to families for dead or jailed terrorists. Instead, it cut pay to Palestinians who worked for the West Bank government. But by refusing foreign aid money still being offered, Fatah caused shortages of food and other necessities in the West Bank. The ensuing Palestinian outrage and resulting damage were blamed on the efforts to halt pay-for-slay terrorism support.
Fatah is pleading with Russia and Arab oil states for help. Russia is broke and prefers to be on good terms with Israel. The Arab oil states are fed up with the Palestinian preference for self-destructive behavior. When the PA can't get the needed Pay for Slay cash from its usual sources, it records missed payments as debts it must eventually pay. Pay for Slay is an essential PA program because it brings in more Palestinian men willing to die for money. Families receiving the money honor their dead benefactors for a long time.
James F Dunnigan