Money-for-martyrs scheme will continue, says Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pictured, says he will continue paying stipends to Palestinian attackers and their families, despite the Israeli Parliament’s decision last week to withhold hundreds of millions in funds from taxes collected on the Palestinian Authority’s behalf. Abbas defiantly told a meeting of Fatah party leaders on Sunday that the Palestinian Government would pay ‘‘our martyrs and prisoners and wounded people’’ as it had done since 1965. Israel has called on Palestinians for years to halt the stipends, which benefit roughly 35,000 families of Palestinians killed, wounded or jailed in its conflict with Israel. Israel says that the practice encourages violence.