The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine described the Palestinian Authority’s decision to cut salaries to the families of martyrs and allowances for prisoners and wounded Palestinians as a fully constituted political and moral crime, a blatant stab at the resistance's history of the Palestinian people, and a flagrant repudiation of all covenants and commitments upon which the Palestinian struggle and resistance were founded.

In a statement issued on Monday, the movement said: “This unjust decision literally aligns with the dictates of the Zionist enemy and its project aimed at stripping the Palestinian cause of its spirit and meaning.”

The statement added: “Instead of supporting the families of prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded as a national duty that expresses loyalty to the sacrifices made by our people, the decision seeks to turn this established right into a ‘social handout,’ subject to social-research criteria stripped of any national consideration.”

Islamic Jihad stated that the decision represents a crude attempt by the Palestinian Authority to remove the national dimension of the pure blood shed in the pursuit of freedom and to transform the prisoners’ cause from a sacred national issue into a mere administrative and social file.

The movement continued: “What is most painful and harsh is that this decision comes at an extremely critical and suffering-filled moment. It strikes families who offered their sons in defense of Palestine, leaving them to face hunger, deprivation, and anxiety alone after cutting off what sustained their steadfastness, while their imprisoned sons endure the harshest forms of oppression and torture in the prisons of the Zionist enemy. This makes the decision a punishment of the Palestinian people for their adherence to their legitimate right to resistance.”

The statement concluded: “We in the Islamic Jihad Movement express our categorical rejection of this unjust decision and call on the leadership of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah to immediately reverse it.”