Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman

The US State Department announced on Thursday that it will impose sanctions on Palestinian Authority officials and members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), accusing them of undermining peace efforts with Israel and continuing to support terrorism.

The move marks a significant escalation in US pressure toward Palestinian political leadership and comes as several Western countries, including France, Britain, and Canada, have announced over the past week that they may recognize a Palestinian state.

“It is in our national security interests to impose consequences and hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace,” the State Department said in a statement, which noted that the US will deny visas to those being sanctioned.

The restrictions, authorized under the Middle East Peace Commitments Act of 2002 and the PLO Commitments Compliance Act of 1989, were imposed against individuals the US government accused of “taking actions to internationalize its conflict with Israel such as through the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ).”

The State Department also said it was targeting Palestinian officials for “continuing to support terrorism including incitement and glorification of violence (especially in textbooks), and providing payments and benefits in support of terrorism to Palestinian terrorists and their families.”

For years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has maintained a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis. Under the policy, the Palestinian Authority Martyr’s Fund makes official payments to Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, the families of “martyrs” killed in attacks on Israelis, and injured Palestinian terrorists. Reports estimate that approximately 8 percent of the PA’s budget is allocated to paying stipends to convicted terrorists and their families.

No names were released by the State Department on Thursday, and the scope of the restrictions remains unclear. However, officials emphasized that the mandate targets only those individuals directly implicated in undermining peace efforts.

The announcement comes at a particularly sensitive moment. While multiple US allies in the West have announced their intention to recognize a Palestinian state in upcoming months, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups and international human rights bodies have ramped up criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Some American politicians in Congress have also sharpened their criticism of Israel, falsely accusing the Jewish state of engineering a famine in the beleaguered enclave.

The move follows a string of recent actions by the US to punish individuals and groups it accuses of aiding Hamas or promoting what it views as anti-Israel narratives. The US recently imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, lambasting the official for “unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West.”