Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

United Kingdom foreign aid directly finances Palestinian terrorists responsible for killing Israelis, including the planners of suicide bombings, according to a Daily Mail investigation.

The investigation reaffirms that major Western country donors continue to be misled concerning development assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Concrete evidence of the PA paying convicted terrorists in Israeli jails was presented in a court document during a $1 billion civil trial brought by US victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks.

Despite assurances that the PA would cease to pay convicted terrorists, PA officials allow the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to distribute the funds to Palestinian murderers instead.

According to the Daily Mail review, the PLO transferred more than $140,000 to Hamas bomb maker Abdallah Barghouti, who is responsible for masterminding deadly attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Other “salaries” are provided to families of suicide bombers and Palestinians involved in the latest wave of violence against Israelis.

The investigation also uncovered a tremendous amount of waste and corruption. For example, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is building an $11.3 million palace in the West Bank.

Daily Mail reporter Ian Birrel interviewed terrorists to confirm that the PA pays them and their families for attacking Israelis.

Ahmad Musa, convicted for a double murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, was released after five years of his sentence in a “peace deal” and enjoys a monthly salary from the PA.

“Yes, I shot them dead,” Musa boasted after Birrell asked him whether he was guilty.

Musa earns roughly $850 a month, for life, while other terrorists receive much more.

Amjad Awad, who was among the terrorists who slaughtered the Fogel family in their West Bank home in 2011 — including three young children — received up to an estimated $22,600.

In another case, the father of two brothers imprisoned for shooting Israelis told the Daily Mail that he receives monthly stipends of $610 from the PA and more than $400 from PLO.

The Department for International Development confirms that the PLO offers “social welfare” payments to terrorist prisoners’ families, but denies that UK funds directly reach the murderers themselves.

A 2015 Palestinian Media Watch report outlines how the PA continues to deceive the West by diverting money to terrorists and their families through the PLO.

PA officials explicitly defend the payments.

“It is not a crime to be fighting occupation. These people are heroes,” said Amr Nasser, adviser to the PA social affairs minister.

Steven Emerson is the Executive Director the Investigative Project on Terrorism (www.investigativeproject.org) where this article first appeared.