Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
PIJ-Shaqaqi Faction
PIJ-Shallah Faction
Islamic Jihad of Palestine
Islamic Jihad in Palestine
Abu Ghunaym Squad of the Hizballah Bayt al-Maqdis
Al-Quds Squads
Al-Quds Brigades
Saraya al-Quds
Al-Awdah Brigades

In Gaza, the Muslim Brotherhood organization Hamas worked with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards, while Paliltinian Islamic Jihad workd for the IRGC. PIJ's goal is the establishment of a sovereign Islamic state within the historic borders of Palestine. PIJ promotes the military destruction of Israel as the only viable means to attain this goal, and rejects a two-state solution. Elements in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been trying to outflank Hamas and brand themselves as the "true" jihadist entity operating out of the Strip.

The PIJ refused to give a formal commitment to a Palestinian unilateral ceasefire in 2005 and has previously conducted terrorist attacks to derail peace processes. Since Hamas' victory in the Palestinian Legislative Council election in January 2006, the PIJ has issued statements condemning political compromises made byHamas and Fatah towards Israel. The PIJ supported Hamas' victory, but rejected any notion of participating in government itself.

Israeli forces killed Baha Abu al-Atta, leader of al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, in a predawn attack on his house in the Shejaiya district in Gaza 12 November 2019. "Abu al-Atta was responsible for most of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's activity in the Gaza Strip and was a ticking bomb," according to the statement. Many viewed the killing of Baha Abu al Atta, a senior commander of Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran, as a political move by Netanyahu to increase his plummeting popularity across Israel.

Long before the assassination, Israel has had an eye on Atta, who had survived several attempts on his life, going back to the early 2010s. According to the Israelis, Atta was responsible for planning and preparing attacks and led efforts to manufacture arms, increasing the Palestinian capacity to launch long-range rockets. An Israeli army statement described him as “a ticking bomb” saying that he was responsible for much of the Islamic Jihad activity in the Palestinian enclave, organising attacks against Sderot, an Israeli border town, in August and November.

Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and Israel declared a halt to hostilities across the Gaza Strip border on 14 November 2019 but a lasting cease-fire appeared tenuous as they differed on terms. Islamic Jihad said an Egyptian-­mediated truce went into effect at 03:30 GMT, about 48 hours after Israel triggered the exchange of fire by killing the Iranian-backed faction's top Gaza commander in an air strike, deeming him an imminent threat.

A few hours' calm ensued. Then witnesses in Gaza saw five rockets being launched, and sirens sounded in Israeli border towns. There was no word of casualties. Gaza medical officials put the total death toll from the two days of fighting at 34 ­Palestinians, almost half of them civilians and including eight children and three ­women. Hundreds of rocket launches by militants had paralyzed much of southern Israel and reached as far north as Tel Aviv, sending thousands of people to shelters. Dozens of Israelis were hurt.

Islamic Jihad said Israel had accepted its demand to stop both the targeted killing of militants and sometimes lethal army gunfire at weekly Palestinian protests on the Gaza border. But Israel said it would observe only a limited quid pro quo. "Quiet will be answered with quiet," Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Army Radio.

According to Abu Toameh, “Hamas wants to preserve the ceasefire understandings with Israel so as to remain in power. PIJ, on the other hand, wants to continue launching terror attacks against Israel…. to appease their patrons in Tehran, and, second, to scores points on the Palestinian street by showing that, unlike Hamas, they are not prepared to make any concessions to the ‘Zionist enemy.’”

The Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is the most radical terrorist organization operating in the Palestinian arena. Palestine Islamic Jihad originated among militant Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s, committed to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state and the destruction of Israel through holy war. Headed by Dr. Fathi Shqaqi and Inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has a radical fundamentalist Sunni Muslim ideology, and seeks the immediate "liberation" of Palestine. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad rejects any arrangement or agreement with Israel.

Because of its strong support for Israel, the United States has been identified as an enemy of the PIJ, but the group has not specifically conducted attacks against US interests in the past. In July 2000, however, publicly threatened to attack US interests if the US Embassy is moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Palestine Islamic Jihad was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on October 8, 1997. PIJ also opposes moderate Arab governments that it believes have been "tainted by Western secularism".

Activities

The Palestine Islamic Jihad has a military-terrorist wing called the Jerusalem Brigades which carries out terrorist attacks against Israel, including suicide bombing attacks. PIJ's al-Quds Brigades undertakes attacks, and also publishes claims of responsibility for attacks on behalf of PIJ. Al-Quds Brigades statements are disseminated via the al-Quds Brigades-run website or PIJ-affiliated media outlets. Because PIJ focuses almost exclusively on militant activities that further its objectives, the organisation as a whole and the al-Quds Brigades are often indistinguishable. Today the Palestine Islamic Jihad focuses primarily on rocket attacks, among them attacks with long-range rockets and mortar shells launched from the Gaza Strip.

PIJ terrorists have conducted numerous attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets. PIJ continued to plan and direct attacks against Israelis both inside Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza. Conducted at least three attacks against Israeli interests in late 2000, including one to commemorate the anniversary of former PIJ leader Fathi Shaqaqi's murder in Malta on 26 October 1995. Conducted suicide bombings against Israeli targets in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Israel.

In 2006 the terrorist infrastructures of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip played a dominant role in the firing of rockets at southern Israel. Its objective was to demonstrate its leadership, and to try to create a balance of deterrence between Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip. In contrast to Fatah and Hamas, the organization did not feel any political constraints, nor did the needs of the Palestinian population commit it to a policy of restraint. It sought to escalate violence even after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Abbas reached the Gaza Strip cease-fire agreement. The PIJ was the only Palestinian terrorist organization that managed to carry out two suicide-bombing attacks in 2006, both at the same fast food restaurant near the old Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv.

In 2007 the attack policy of the PIJ was not influenced by the political exigencies influencing Hamas. The organization was responsible for a large percentage of the “routine” rocket fire plaguing Israel, its intention being to disrupt the daily lives of the residents of the western Negev. For example, on September 3, 2007, the day after school began, the PIJ launched several barrages of rockets at Sderot. At the same time the organization attempted to send terrorist operatives into Israeli territory to carry out showcase attacks.

PIJ attacks between 2008 and 2011 were primarily rocket attacks aimed at southern Israeli cities, and have also included attacking Israeli targets with explosive devices. The group is thought to be behind a large number of the record-setting 2,300 plus rockets launched from Gaza towards Israel in 2012. Additionally, in November 2012, PIJ operatives, working with Hamas, detonated a bomb on a bus in Tel Aviv, leaving 29 civilians wounded. In December 2013, four PIJ operatives were arrested by Israeli authorities for their role in a bus bombing near Tel Aviv, which was discovered in time for passengers to escape injury. The bomb hidden in a bag exploded on a bus in Bat Yam after passengers were evacuated from the vehicle. Hamas and Islamic Jihad “welcomed” the terror attack, but did not claim responsibility for the bombing. An Islamic Jihad source said he hoped this attack “could usher the resumption of suicide attacks.”

Location/Area of Operation

The group was based in Damascus prior to the Syrian civil war and its financial backing came from there and Iran. PIJ also has offices in Beirut, Tehran and Khartoum. It has some influence in the Gaza Strip, mainly in the Islamic University, but not in a way that can endanger the dominant position of Hamas as the leading Islamic Palestinian organization.

Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) operates primarily in Israel, the West Bank,and the Gaza Strip, but also other parts of the Middle East. Primarily Gaza with minimal operational presence in the West Bank and Israel. The group’s senior leadership resides in Syria, while some other leadership elements reside in Lebanon, and official representatives are scattered throughout the Middle East.

In 2003, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, or PIJ, activities and capabilities in the U.S. were severely undercut by the arrests of the U.S. PIJ leader, Sami al-Arian, and three of his top lieutenants. There have also been two additional arrests of suspected PIJ activists on charges unrelated to terrorism. There has been no indication of a new U.S. PIJ leadership since the arrest of al-Arian.

External Aid

PIJ is the primary Iranian proxy in the Palestinian arena and regularly acts directly on Iran’s behalf. As early as 2012, PIJ leaders were on record stating that the group’s missiles were provided by Iran. Iran is PIJ’s principal funder, providing the group with hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decade, as well as advanced weapons and military training. Received financial assistance from Iran and limited logistic assistance from Syria. The Government of Iran has used Bank Saderat to channel funds to the Palestine Islamic Jihad. HAMAS and the Palestine Islamic Jihad are not part of the al-Qa'ida "family," but it is impossible to disentangle their logistics networks. Like HAMAS, but on a much smaller scale, US-based Palestine Islamic Jihad members and supporters are primarily engaged in fundraising, propaganda and proselytizing activities. The Tampa-based Islamic Concern Project (ICP) and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise are front organizations that raised funds for militant Islamic-Palestinian groups such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and HAMAS. Sudan is a state sponsor of terrorism, so designated by the U.S. Department of State. Elements of Al-Qa’ida-inspired terrorists, as well as elements of Palestine Islamic Jihad and Hamas, are located in Sudan.

In 2015, the Congressional Research Service estimated that the lslamic Republic was spending between $3.5 billion to $16 billion annually on terrorism and insurgency worldwide, including bankrolling the entire operating budget of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, providing tens of millions of dollars to the Hamas terrorist group, and transferring between $100 and $200 million annually to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia1.

In 2016, Iran managed to tighten its grip on PIJ, after the organization accepted the demand of the commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimanito appoint Khalid Mansour, a member of al-Quds Brigades, to head the PIJ military wing. PIJ denied that Iran was providing it with $70 million a year, but did not deny that Khalid Mansour had been appointed to head the organization’s military arm at Qassem Soleimani’s order.

In February 2021 it was reported that Iran had informed the Palestine Islamic Jihad that it will be slashing its aid by half, citing the dire economic crisis in the Islamic republic. According to a report in Egyptian daily Al-Masry al-Youm, Iran has been gradually scaling back its support for the PIJ for several years, but had to impose a more drastic cutback. The cuts led to an internal dispute between the commanders of the Al-Quds Brigades, which was reported to have resulted in an armed conflict between them.

Military Communication No. (1) issued by the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades: "Under intense missile cover and targeting of the enemy’s command and control systems, the Mujahideen of the Qassam Brigades were able to cross the enemy’s defensive line and carry out a simultaneous coordinated attack on more than 50 sites in the Gaza Division and the region. The southern division in the occupation army, which led to the overthrow of the division's defense, and our mujahideen are still fighting heroic battles in 25 locations up to this moment, and the fighting is currently taking place at the "Ra'im" base, the headquarters of the Gaza Division's command."

Strength

PIJ was estimated in 2013 to have fewer than 1,000 members. By 2021 Hamas was estimated to have a fighting force of close to 40,000 men, whereas PIJ’s fighting force was believed to be at least 9,000. By another estimate, PIJ is the second-largest terrorist organization in Gaza (after Hamas), commanding around 6,000 fighters and 9,000 activists. While PIJ’s fighters based in Gaza, the group’s senior leadership has operated in Syria and Lebanon since 1988.

Al-Quds Brigades carried out, in one of their locations on 03 October 2023, with live ammunition, the advanced offensive maneuver “Martyrs, Omens of Victory,” with the participation of elite forces and a number of field military specialties (missiles, artillery, armor, and intelligence), simulating raids on several Zionist military sites and fortifications with a high intensity of fire. The military maneuver launched by the “Al-Quds Brigades” in the northern Gaza Strip came within the framework of preparing and equipping the force after the “Revenge of the Battle”.

Commander Akram Al-Ajouri, Commander of the Military Department of the Islamic Jihad Movement, said 04 October 2023: You were and still are the forefront of the movement with your effort, patience and success. Victory is your ally and defeat does not exist in your dictionary. Our heroes and mujahideen, we know that you are walking in the confident footsteps of God’s love, help and support. You are the people of hearing and obedience, and you are the good role models and factory of men and heroes. All salutes to you for this great effort that you have made in your blessed career, and all salutes to your leaders, your military and staff council, and the commanders of the military units and formations with all their mujahideen. Our enemies wanted the “deal of the century” for Palestine and its people, so we wanted the sword of Jerusalem. They wanted normalization to marginalize us, isolate us, and liquidate our cause, so we wanted unity of the arenas. Yes, unity of the arenas. ... Their time is about to end, and the circle is getting tighter and tighter on them, and the decisiveness is coming, God willing. You are the soldiers of God and the army of Muhammad. You will set foot on the entire soil of Palestine and you will enter your mosque as liberators and conquerors, inevitably. This is God’s promise.

Yedioth Ahronoth wrote: “When Hamas suddenly sends dozens to demonstrate near the border, and when Islamic Jihad conducts a maneuver two days before storming military sites and settlements, Israeli intelligence should have been aware that something was brewing, but it was a major intelligence failure.”

A member of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, Dr. Walid Al-Qatati, on December 28, 2022, said that the “Israeli” occupation army targeted the Jihad movement and its military arm, the Al-Quds Brigades, during the “Unity of the Squares” battle; Because it is the vanguard of resistance in Palestine.

Dr. Al-Qatati said in press statements: “What distinguishes the “Unity of the Battlefields” battle is that it was launched against the Islamic Jihad movement as it is the spearhead of resistance and confrontation of the occupier, and the shield that defends Palestine. He added: “The unity of the battlefields was to set the example that worries the enemy and deals with it as an equal.” Al-Qatati stressed that targeting Islamic Jihad and the leadership of the Al-Quds Brigades in the “battle of battlefield unity” came as a result of the insistence of the movement’s leadership, represented by its Secretary-General, to continue the path of jihad and resistance.

He also stressed that the Islamic Jihad Movement seeks, through the establishment of the Al-Quds Brigades in the occupied West Bank, to generalize the state of resistance in the Palestinian street as a whole. He pointed out that the occupation tried during the Battle of “Unity of the Squares” to hold the leadership of the Islamic Jihad movement responsible for the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip, but it failed to do so, as the Palestinians rallied around the resistance and its leadership.

The prominent leader of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Abu Khaled, on 02 October 2023 in conversation with Shams News, revealed a continuous and increasing development in the expertise, weapons, combat tactics, and resistance thinking of the “Al-Quds Brigades” in confronting and engaging the enemy in all arenas, while indicating that the future holds more omens at levels. Several, the most important of which are strength and development in terms of equipment, equipment, weapons and tools, and at the level of many leaders and soldiers.

Abu Khaled explained in an interview with “Shams News Agency” that the development of expertise took place during the first years of establishment from the beginning, as a natural result of field needs that required the development of confrontation tools and structural construction through the accumulation of experiences and capabilities, a development that began with the knife, with what was known as (the revolution). Knives) at the hands of the heroes of Islamic Jihad fighters, then the bomb and pistol phase, passing through light weapons and engagement from point zero, and bombing operations using explosive belts, then the missile phase that moved the battle deep into the enemy’s field.

Regarding the brigades’ achievements during the recent battles and the surprises in the event of any new confrontation, he said: “The Jerusalem Brigades, in every battle they wage against this Zionist enemy, present something new and make progress in the field. This is an open battle with the enemy, and we will continue to accumulate strength and preoccupation in all arenas, and we will have To defend our people, there is every reason to be strong.”

Abu Khaled reiterated that the Al-Quds Brigades and the Resistance will continue the struggle of brains, the last of which will not be the attack on Tel Aviv and what happened in “Ruhovot,” in his reference to the precise injuries caused by the brigades’ missile strikes during the “Revenge of the Free” battle, the most prominent of which was the injury and destruction of a house. In the Ruhovot area, south of Tel Aviv.

Regarding military tactics and formations in any future battle, he said: “Military tactics and combat military formations are dictated by the field and battle conditions. Certainly, the Al-Quds Brigades are present with their leaders and expertise in all fields, and any tactic in any battle will be revealed by the field at that time, and it may be in any arena in which we are present. "It reinforces the idea of the unity of the squares."

Regarding the brigades’ ignition of the West Bank arena, which began with the “Jenin Battalion,” he said: “The combat environment is complex in the West Bank, whether in terms of security or military, and there is a real field siege, which has added to a kind of stagnation in the West Bank arena for years.” He added, "Despite this, the Al-Quds Brigades were able, by adopting a project to arm the West Bank, to ignite the fuse of confrontation and intifada again through their deployed brigades... Now there are Al-Quds Brigades deployed in the West Bank, fighting and clashing with the Zionist enemy continuously and on an almost daily basis." Abu Khaled stressed that the state of resistance in the West Bank is growing, and that the will of the mujahideen that we see and the insistence of the fighters and the popular support is reassuring, adding, "The resistance in the West Bank is fine and is a source of hope."

Regarding the situation of the companies after the campaign of targeting and assassination of their leaders, he said: “Certainly the martyrdom of the leaders and cadres is an influential event, and each leader has a special imprint, a special presence, and is important. We do not say that their rise was easy for us, but we have a structure in the building of the military and organizational apparatus that helped us immediately to continue, and this is what It was expressed in the battle of “Revenge of the Freedmen” and the battles before it.

Abu Khaled added, "The Al-Quds Brigades were able to quickly absorb these strikes and rearrange their ranks. We proved that with every strike we are subjected to, the enemy's plans fail, which wants to reach the point where the Brigades amputate their hands and paralyze their minds. However, they surprise everyone that they grow stronger with every assassination."

Regarding the enemy’s threat of further assassination of the military leadership of Islamic Jihad, he said: “The enemy is living in a state of continuous crisis, and the threat comes in this direction according to our assessment, but if an assassination operation occurs, the resistance will live up to its people’s belief in it, and the enemy will not be safe, God willing.”

At the conclusion of his, Abu Khaled revealed an unprecedented stampede to join the ranks of the movement.