Israel Rebuffs PA Audit Claim on Pay-to-Slay Reform

Israel pushed back Friday against a Palestinian Authority announcement that an Alvarez & Marsal external audit found its revived welfare program no longer bases payments on martyr, detainee, prisoner or injured status. The PA said eligibility under the Unified National Protection and Care Program is now calculated only through poverty, social and geographic criteria, and that no reviewed variables were tied to security-prisoner or martyr categories. An Israeli official said the audit is insufficient because covert or under-the-table channels require intelligence review, and Israel's Foreign Ministry said pay-for-slay remains PA policy. Ramallah wants the result to support a U.S. compliance review under the Taylor Force Act, while Israel is pressing allies not to treat the audit alone as proof that terror incentives ended.