The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn), commonly known simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary organization formed in 1981.
Islamic Jihad Movement حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين
The armed wing of PIJ is Al-Quds Brigades (also known as "Saraya"), also formed in 1981, which is active in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with its main strongholds in the West Bank being the cities of Hebron and Jenin. Its operations have included suicide bombings, attacks on Israeli civilians, as well as the firing of rockets into Israel, targeting civilians. PIJ has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States,[11] the European Union,[12] the United Kingdom,[13] Canada,[14] Australia,[7] New Zealand[15][16] and Israel.[17]
August 1987: The PIJ claimed responsibility for a shooting that killed the commander of the Israeli military police in the .[6]
Gaza Strip
July 1989: Attack of Egged bus 405 along the , at least 14 people killed (including two Canadians and one American) and dozens more wounded. Though intended to be a suicide attack, the perpetrator survived.[46]
Jerusalem–Tel Aviv highway
4 February 1990: A bus carrying Israeli tourists in Egypt was attacked. The attack left 11 people, including 9 Israelis, dead and 17 others injured.
[47]
February 1992: in , killed three Israeli soldiers asleep in their base, using knives, axes and a pitchfork
Night of the Pitchforks
6 April 1992: an convoy was ambushed in Hula, South Lebanon. Two soldiers were killed and 5 wounded. The target had been Major-General Yitzhak Mordechai, head of Israel's Northern Command. But he had left the convoy earlier. Three of the attackers were killed.[48]
Israeli Army
December 1993: Killed an Israeli reservist, David Mashrati, during a public bus shooting.
April 1994: A car bomb aboard a public bus killed 9 people and injured 50.
January 1995: Bomb attack near killing eighteen soldiers and one civilian.[23]
Netanya
April 1995: Bomb Attack in and Kfar Darom. The first bomb killed 8 people including American student, Alisa Flatow, and injured over 30 on an Israel bus; the second attack was a car bomb that injured 12 people.[49]
Netzarim
March 1996: A Tel Aviv shopping mall is the site of another bombing killing 20 and injuring 75.
[50]
November 2000: A car bomb in Jerusalem at an outdoor market killed 2 people and injured 10.
[51]
March 2002: A bomb killed seven people and injured approximately thirty aboard a bus travelling from Tel Aviv to Nazareth.
[51]
June 2002: Eighteen people are killed and fifty injured in an attack at the .[23]
Megiddo Junction
July 2002: A killed five people and injured 40.
double attack in Tel Aviv
November 2002: 12 soldiers and security personnel killed in an .[52]
After the Afula mall bombing, PIJ stated that the suicide bomber was a 19-year-old Palestinian female student named Hiba Daraghmeh
ambush in Hebron
May 2003: Three people killed and eighty-three injured in a suicide bombing at a in Afula.
shopping mall
August 2003: A bomber killed 21 people and injured more than 100 people on a bus in Jerusalem.
[51]
October 2003: A bomb killed 22 and injured 60 at a .
Haifa restaurant
October 2005: A bomb detonated in a was responsible for killing seven people and injuring 55, five of them severely.
Hadera market
April 2006: A bomb in a killed eleven and injured 70.
Tel Aviv eatery
January 2007: Both the and the PIJ claim responsibility for a suicide bombing at an Eilat bakery that killed three.[23]
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
June 2007, in a failed assault on an IDF position at the between Gaza and Israel in a possible attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers, four armed members of the al-Quds Brigades (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (the military wing of Fatah) allegedly used a vehicle marked with "TV" and "PRESS" insignias penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what Islamic Jihad and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier.[53] IDF troops killed one militant, while the others escaped. The use of a vehicle that resembled a press vehicle evoked a sharp response from many journalists and news organizations. The Middle East director for Human Rights Watch Sarah Leah Whitsonn responded, "Using a vehicle with press markings to carry out a military attack is a serious violation of the laws of war, and it also puts journalists at risk."[54] The FPA responded by saying,
Kissufim crossing
: founder of PIJ, 1981–1995, assassinated by Mossad gunmen.
