Under fire from Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since Friday, Islamic Jihad, founded in 1981, is a Palestinian organization engaged in armed struggle against Israel.
Created by students at the Islamic University of Gaza, it is considered close to the Islamist movement Hamas, which has been in power in the Palestinian enclave since 2007.
The two groups, supported by Iran, which is Israel’s number one enemy, are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood movement, a brotherhood established in Egypt in the 20th century.
Islamic Jihad works mainly in Gaza but the group is also present in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state. Israel says that relations between the group and Tehran have strengthened.
A “preemptive strike”
“The leader of Islamic Jihad (Ziad al-Nakhala) is in Tehran as we speak,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Friday as his country bombed Gaza in a “preemptive strike” against the armed group, fearing retaliation after the attack. arrest in the West Bank of one of its leaders a few days earlier.
General Hossein Salami, head of the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ideological army, told the Islamic Jihad chief on Saturday that the Palestinians were “not alone” in their fight against Israel.
In 1992, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, was founded.
The organization was headed by Fathi Chakaki until 1995, when this writer and doctor was assassinated in Malta by a team sent by the Israeli foreign intelligence services, the Mossad.
Responsibility for multiple suicide bombings is claimed
Considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks against Israelis, especially during the second Intifada (Palestinian uprising, 2000-2005).
In particular, he led a suicide attack in 1989 on a bus linking Tel Aviv with Jerusalem in which 16 people were killed. Many leaders of this radical organization are currently in Damascus, Syria.
· Rejection of the Oslo Accords
Islamic Jihad opposes any negotiations with Israel and rejects the Oslo accords, signed by the Palestinian Authority and the Jewish state in 1993. Although the organization regularly coordinates its actions with Hamas, the current escalation demonstrates a certain independence.
Hamas has not fired rockets at Israel since the outbreak of violence began on Friday, as happened in 2019 when Islamic Jihad and Israel exchanged deadly fire for several days following the death of a military commander. .
He was the leader of the organization in northern Gaza. His successor in this role, Tayssir Al-Jabari, was killed in an Israeli raid on Friday.
Source: BFM TV
