Unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad does not contest political office.
New Delhi:
A massive explosion tore through a hospital in Gaza, killing at least 500 people on Tuesday. The incident sparked global outrage and demonstrations in several Muslim-majority countries. Israel and Palestine traded blame for the incident, which US President Joe Biden denounced while en route to Israel.
While the Israeli military blamed a “missed rocket” launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, the Hamas-led Health Ministry in Gaza says Israel was behind the bombing of the Al-Ahli Arabi Baptist Hospital.
But what is the Islamic Jihad group?
The beginning
Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an ally of Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the US State Department, violently opposes Israel’s existence.
The group’s founders, Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda, were students in Egypt and members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamic social movement founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna. Sometime in the late 1970s, the two felt that the Brotherhood was not fully committed to the Palestinian cause.
Inspired by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini-led Iranian revolution, Shaqaqi and Awda created an offshoot group whose sole purpose was the militant destruction of the Israeli state.
In 1981, the Egyptian government exiled PIJ, which had split from the Muslim Brotherhood, to Gaza after the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
Operations in Gaza
The PIJ functions as a decentralized, compartmentalized organization that typically prioritizes attacking Israel while avoiding the prominent social, welfare, and political roles played by other Islamic extremist groups in the region, such as Hamas, Fatah, or even the Lebanon-based, Iranian-backed group. Hezbollah.
Their first successful attack is believed to have taken place in Gaza, the assassination of an Israeli Military Police captain in August 1987, a few months before the first Palestinian intifada.
While in Gaza, Islamic Jihad killed an Israeli Military Police captain just a few months before the start of the First Intifada in 1987.
The same year they were expelled to Lebanon, where Islamic Jihad built a strong relationship with Hezbollah and even received weapons training from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Two years later, Shaqaqi established the group’s official headquarters in Damascus, Syria, where they continue to operate to this day.
Relationship with Hamas
Unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad does not provide any social services in Gaza, nor does it intend to fight for political office, nor does it intend to open diplomatic channels with Israel.
The only thing the two groups have in common is the fact that both are against Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have often coordinated militant operations in the Palestinian enclave.
However, there have been times when Hamas has, ironically, warned Islamic Jihad against attacking Israel. Islamic Jihad acts independently in most cases. Focused primarily on military confrontations, there have been times when Islamic Jihad has been at the forefront while Hamas has remained on the sidelines during clashes with Israel.
Relationship with Iran
In the first ten years, the Iranian Revolution’s sphere of influence was limited to Shia groups in Iraq, Lebanon and the Gulf Emirates. The country failed to make progress in Sunni-majority countries, nor did its fundamentalist ideas entice Islamic militant groups.
While Shaqaqi and Awda were inspired by the Iranian revolution, Iran paid no attention to it. Ayatollah Khomenei and Iran’s leaders remained steadfast in promoting Shia values without focusing on Sunni-dominated countries.
However, a change took place. In the late 1980s, after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iran decided to export its fundamentalism to countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and, most importantly, Palestine – coinciding with the First Intifada. And after Israel kicked Islamic Jihad into Lebanon, the group came under direct influence of Iran.
According to the US State Department, it is Iran that is financing Islamic Jihad’s budget, just as it reportedly does for Hamas and Hezbollah. The US also blames Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria for providing a safe haven to the group in Damascus.
Attacks carried out by Islamic Jihad
Islamic Jihad’s modus operandi includes suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians and military personnel.
1987: Assassination of an Israeli Military Police commander in Gaza
1994: Car bomb attack that kills nine and injures fifty on board a public bus
1995: Suicide bombing that kills 18 soldiers and one civilian in Netanyahu, Israel.
1996: Suicide bombing at a shopping center in Tel Aviv, killing 13 people and injuring 75.
2003: Suicide bombing at a restaurant in Haifa, killing 22 people and injuring 60.
In addition to other suicide bombings, Islamic Jihad is also working with Hamas to launch rockets into Israel.
