The Iranian Proxy in the Palestinian Territories–Who is the Islamic Jihad?

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is a terrorist organization that operates in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria. Their stated goals include an uncompromised armed struggle against Israel with the aim of destroying it and the establishment of a religious Islamic state within the 1948 borders. The Islamic Jihad is considered one of the closest Palestinian terrorist organizations to the Iranian regime, which gives the Islamic Jihad significant financial and logistical support.

The military force of the organization is primarily located in the Gaza Strip. Its senior leadership, including the Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala, directs its operations from Syria and Lebanon. The Islamic Jihad also operates armed terrorist cells in the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria. 

The Islamic Jihad is recognized as a terrorist organization by, among others, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, and Australia.

History of Terrorism

The Islamic Jihad was founded in 1979 by Palestinian fundamentalist students Fathi Shaqaqi and Ramadan Shalah, as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2003, the “Manifesto of the Islamic Jihad in Palestine” was uncovered by U.S. investigators amid the arrest of the group’s North American head Sami al-Arian in 2003, the manifesto affirms that “the Jihad solution and the martyrdom style as the only choice for liberation” and rejects “any peaceful solution to the Palestinian cause.”

Over the years, the Islamic Jihad has been involved in almost every wave of Palestinian violence and terrorism. They were responsible for the escalation of violence during the First Intifada, carried out terrorist attacks in order to disrupt negotiations of the Oslo Accords, and in line with their religious fundamentalism, started murdering opponents and forcing a strict Islamic lifestyle on the Palestinian civilian populations in the areas in Gaza they controlled, beside Hamas.

During the Second Intifada (between the years 2000-2005), the Islamic Jihad planned, orchestrated and executed some of the most horrific terror attacks targeting the Israeli civilian population. One of their deadliest terror attacks was in 2003, the suicide bombing at “Maxim” restaurant, in which 21 civilians, including the elderly and young children, were murdered. The terrorist attack was planned by the Islamic Jihad, which viewed the deaths of the civilians as a great operational success.

The Islamic Jihad today

Today, the Islamic Jihad is the second-largest terrorist organization active in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas. Unlike Hamas, the Islamic Jihad is solely a militant group, not a governmental authority. Its singular purpose is to inflict terror by any means in order to harm Israelis.

The Islamic Jihad also has a wide network of terrorist cells inside the Palestinian areas of Judea and Samaria, mainly in the cities of Nablus and Jenin. These cells often include children, which the Islamic Jihad recruits from a young age. The leadership of the Islamic Jihad uses those cells to plan and execute terror attacks against soldiers and civilians alike, putting both Israeli and uninvolved Palestinian civilians in danger.

The Islamic Jihad invests heavily in the next generation of terrorists. Over the years the Islamic Jihad has run “summer camps'' for children which draw as many as 10,000 participants per session in both Gaza and Judea and Samaria. The camps’ activities include wielding AK-47s, planting landmines, and mock operations to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Suicide bombers who massacred Israeli civilians are also glorified as heroes in the camps.

An Islamic Jihad official said about the educational content in the summer camps: “We teach the children the truth. How the Jews persecuted the prophets and tortured them. We stress that the Jews killed and slaughtered Arabs and Palestinians every chance they got . . . As long as Jews remain here, between the [Jordan] river and the sea, they will be our enemy and we will continue to pursue and kill them”.

The Islamic Jihad and the Iranian Regime

The Iranian regime is the main sponsor and commanding force of fundamentalism, radicalization and terrorism in the Middle East. It controls terrorist proxies all the way from Iraq to Yemen, causing war, economic collapse and Islamic coercion wherever they control. Though most Palestinian terrorist organizations receive support and guidance from Iran, the Islamic Jihad is the closest and most loyal Iranian terror proxy.

Iran’s regime, and other Iranian proxies like Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias in Syria, are nearly the sole contributors of financial and logistical resources to the Islamic Jihad, delivering millions of dollars used almost exclusively for terrorism, arms manufacturing, command and control infrastructure and financial support to terrorists and their families (“pay to slay''). Evidence of the close and long-lasting connections was discovered in 2003 when the Palestinian Security Forces confiscated 3 million dollars cash directly moved from Iran to the Islamic Jihad.

Most of the Ayatollahs regime's support to the Islamic Jihad comes through the Quds Force, the special forces unit of the IRGC which provides financial and combat support to terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, aiming to destabilize countries in order to control their decision-making. The Quds Force came under harsh criticism in Iran for taking money from the Iranian public and sending it abroad, hurting their standard of living. 

Uniquely, since their establishment, the Islamic Jihad voiced ideological support and loyalty to the Iranian Ayatollah regime, though Iran’s regime being Shi’ite and the Islamic Jihad being devout Sunni followers. Ramadan Shalah, one the Islamic Jihad’s leaders has said publicly: “The Islamic Jihad is but one fruit of the fruitful tree of the leader Khamenei '' and most of their current leadership currently lives in Lebanon and Syria and retains close connection to Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds brigades.

But how do the Ayatollahs benefit? In return for their financial supportת the Iranian regime is able to get a foothold in the Palestinian Territories and influence the attacks and threats on the State of Israel.  Furthermore, the Islamic Jihad’s schools and summer camps are a great opportunity to indoctrinate the next generation of Palestinian children for Islamist fundamentalism, national extremism, and sympathy for the deadly Iranian Ayatollahs regime.

The Islamic Jihad in Gaza

The Islamic Jihad is the second largest organization in the Gaza Strip, after Hamas, which rules the Strip. The Islamic Jihad has its own military bases, weapon depots and terrorist units separated from Hamas, but it has got financial and logistical support from Hamas Over the past few years. The Islamic Jihad has fired a large number of rockets toward Israeli territory and has tried numerous times to carry out terror attacks against Israeli civilians, making special efforts to shoot rockets during nighttimes to terrify Israeli civilians living next to the border.

In November 2019, as part of Operation “Black Belt”, the IDF targeted the Commander of the Northern Division of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Baha Abu al-Ata, an extremist operative who carried out a large number of attacks near the security fence and launched many rockets toward Israeli territory. The terrorist organization clashed with the IDF for three days, during which Israel targeted strongpoints and neutralized operatives of the organization using precise weaponry and advanced technologies.

In recent years, the Islamic Jihad carried out four anti-tank attacks, including in 2021, during Operation “Guardian of the Walls” during which the organization fired one anti-tank missile into Israeli territory immediately after the start of the operation, injuring a civilian. In addition, the terrorist organization launched over a thousand rockets and mortars toward Israeli territory. 

At the start of Operation “Breaking Dawn” in 2022, the Islamic Jihad posed a clear and present threat of shooting anti-tank missiles at Israeli civilian vehicles passing near the Gaza border, even forcing the IDF to call all civilians in the area close to the Gaza Strip to stay in their homes. In response, the IDF operated to strike targets belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization with the aim of severely damaging the terrorist organization, killing two members of the leadership of the Islamic Jihad at the time: Tayseer al-Jabari and Khalid Mansour.

Not unlike Hamas, the Islamic Jihad has a long record of placing terrorist facilities inside civilian infrastructures and neighborhoods, putting the lives of civilians in the Gaza Strip in danger. During Operation “Breaking Dawn” it was also revealed that many casualties, among them children, which the Islamic Jihad claimed to be killed by Israeli airstrike, were actually killed by a misfired Islamic Jihad rockets, which fell inside the Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of 11 people, at least 5 of which children, and to harsh damage to property.

Islamic Jihad rocket launched at Israel misfires and lands in Gaza

Meet the Leader of the Islamic Jihad

Ziad al-Nakhalah

Ziad al-Nakhalah is the current leader of the Islamic Jihad. He was born in Khan Yunis under Egyptian rule, and during the 1970’s joined an Iraqi proxy terrorist organization called the Arab Liberation Front, directed by Saddam Hussein. al-Nakhalah was jailed for his terrorist activities and in 1985 was released as part of the Jibreel agreement between Israel and the PFLP.

After his release, al-Nakhalah was tasked by then-Islamic Jihad’s secretary-general Fathi Shikaki with establishing the group’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades. The Al-Quds Brigades are responsible for many of the Islamisc Jihad’s terrorist attacks, both in the Palestinian Territories and in Gaza, where they were accused of indiscriminate rocket fire into Israeli civilian population and for using the Gazan population as human shields.

Al-Nakhala was detained again in 1988, and was exiled to Lebanon, where he lives to this day. He was designated a Specially Designated Terrorist by the United States, with 5 million dollars reward for information leading to his capture in 2014,  and proclaimed Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad in 2018.

Al-Nakhalah’s presence in Lebanon has helped him retain and strengthen the already close ties between the Islamic Jihad, Iran and the other Iranian proxies, especially Hezbollah. al-Nakhalah had multiple meetings with senior Iranian officials visiting Lebanon, including Hezbollah's head, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei.