Nadene Goldfoot

Rocket being fired from Gaza towards Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2023. Israel confirmed that one rocket was fired from Gaza on Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours following an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. In response to that, IDF strikes Hamas posts in Gaza (8-7-23)

During the May 2021 , and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired over 4,300 rockets at Israeli civilians. In August 2022, Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired over 1,100 rockets at Israelis during the three-day escalation, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

An odd report came out Monday of Hamas thwarting a PIJ rocket fire

from Gaza Strip by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, better known as

PIJ.. Why?

As of Saturday night in May 2023, Hamas, which has controlled the

Gaza Strip since 2007, had not been actively

involved in the fighting. Its absence

indicates that the fighting has not widened to include regional players.

Earlier Saturday a senior Israeli official called on

Hamas to seize control of the situation and end Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) rocket fire into Israel. The Palestinian Islamic

Jihad (PIJ)'s history started in 1979 with 3 men.

Fathi Shaqaqi Died October 26,, 1995 He was

assassinated by Mossad agents in Malta in 1995, leading to a

weakening of the PIJ until its resurgence after the Arab Spring.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad are terrorists. This group started in 1979 founded by 3 men; Fathi "Abd al-Aziz al-Shqaqi (1979-1995), or Fathi Ibrahim Abdulaziz Shaqaqi 4 January 1951 – 26 October 1995) was the founder and Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine. Fathi Shaqaqi was born in the Gaza Strip to a refugee family and received his early education at a United Nations school. He studied physics and mathematics at Bir Zeit University and later medicine at Mansoura University in Egypt. Shaqaqi became a follower of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Sayyid Qutb. Influenced by the Iranian Revolution, he wrote a book praising Ayatollah Khomeini's approach to an Islamic state.

The 2nd man was Sheikh "Abd al-aziz Odah. The Iranian Revolution was a major influence on Awda's political outlook and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's ideology, serving as proof that violent revolt was the key to expelling Western influence and establishing an Islamic state. Awda eventually departed Egypt, returning to Gaza in 1981. In Gaza, Awda worked as a professor of Sharia at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) and as an imam at the al-Qassam Mosque,^located in the Nuseirat Camp. The FBI states that Awda was born on 20 December 1950 in Jabalia, a village just south of the city of Beit Lahia, in the Gaza Strip. However, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) lists 1946 as his year of birth. Awda's family was originally from the Beersheba district in southern Mandatory Palestine, and came to Gaza in 1948, living in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Awda obtained a bachelor's degree in Arab and Islamic studies at Dar al-Ulum, part of Cairo University in Egypt, and a master's degree in Sharia law at Zagazig University in Zagazig, a city north of Cairo, where he met future PIJ co-founder Fathi Shaqaqi. Awda and Shaqaqi's time in Zagazig, a hotspot of radical Islamism, particularly Qutbism, proved to be influential on their beliefs. So we find the two were radical bosom buddies.

Died June 6, 2020 Shalah died on 6 June 2020 in Lebanon after a long illness, possible stroke, that included two years in a coma. His funeral was held in Damascus and was attended by, among others the head of the PIJ movement who replaced him, Ziyad al-Nakhalah.

The 3rd and last was Dr. Ramadan Shalah. Ramadan Abdullah Mohammed Shalah (1 January 1958 – 6 June 2020) was the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) between 27 October 1995 and 2018. PIJ has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States,^[2] the European Union,^[3] the United Kingdom,^[4] Japan,^[5] Canada,^[6] Australia,^[7] New Zealand^[8]^[9] and Israel. On becoming secretary-general of PIJ, Shalah was designated a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) by the United States on 27 November 1995.^[10] In 2006, he was placed on the United States FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list.^{[11] It looks like by the time he came along, the FBI was organized}

^{and ready to follow the PIJ terrorists.}Shalah was born in Shuja'iyya, also called Gaza Sejaiya district, a neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

Shalah earned a Ph.D. in banking and economics from the University of Durham, England. His 1989-thesis was entitled Islamic banking in an interest-based economy : a case study of Jordan.

Professor Sami Al-Arian helped bring Shalah to Al-Arian's university, the University of South Florida, in Tampa, Florida, where Shalah taught as an adjunct professor, and where he was appointed by Al-Arian as head of WISE. Shalah left in 1995 to head PIJ. Al-Arian would later plead guilty to helping PIJ, and was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Al-Arian said he was shocked to learn Shalah was "anything other than a scholar."

Ziyad al-Nakhalah was born on 6 April 1953 in Khan Yunis, Gaza, then under Egyptian occupation.

In 1971, al-Nakhalah was sentenced to life imprisonment in Israel because of his militant activities with the Arab Liberation Front. He was one of the 1,150 security prisoners released by Israel on 21 May 1985 in a prisoner swap under the Jibril Agreement.

After his release from Israeli prison, then-PIJ secretary-general Fathi Shikaki tasked al-Nakhalah with establishing in the Gaza Strip the group’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.^[16] Al-Nakhalah was detained again by Israel in April 1988 for his role in the first Intifada, and was exiled to Lebanon in August 1988 with other PIJ leaders.

Al-Nakhalah became deputy secretary general of PIJ in 1995.

He became a 4th head, a replacement of the 3rd. Ziyad al-Nakhalah was born in 1953 in Gaza. He was elected secretary general of Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in September 2018, succeeding Ramadan Shalah who suffered a stroke in April 2018. He was re-elected for a second term in February 2023. In January 2014, the United States Department of State designated him as a Global Terrorist under Executive Order (E.O.), freezing his property and interests in the United States. He has been detained by Israel a number of times since 1971. Al-Nakhala served as deputy secretary general of the movement between 1995 and 2018.

PIJ is sponsored by Iran and Syria. They are radical Islamists and nationalists, meaning they don't have the law on their side-only irrational ideology. Their goal is to create an Islamic Palestinian state and of course, the destruction of Israel by using a "Holy War." They are against pro-Western and Arab governments.

Nothing is beneath them to use to achieve their goals: They have already:

1. 1,000 terrorist attacks from 2000 to 2004. with 950 Israelis wounded and 150 killed.

2. 39 suicide bombings from 2000 to 2005.

3. Battle in Jenin in 2002, the Palestinian terrorist"suicide capital."

4. They recruit in mosques and universities.

The IDF, under the Israeli Ministry of Defense, is responsible for the West Bank, but PA security forces were granted security control of 17.5 percent (called Area A) under the 1993 Oslo Accords. The PA has administrative control over Area B (about 22 percent of the West Bank), but security control is shared with Israeli authorities. Israel maintains all administrative and security control of Area C, which comprises 61 percent of the West Bank. PA security forces and the IDF continued counterterrorism and law enforcement efforts in parts of the West Bank, where U.S.-designated FTOs such as Hamas, PIJ, and the PFLP operated. PA security forces constrained the ability of those organizations to conduct attacks, including arresting Hamas members. PA security forces continue to proactively arrest individuals planning attacks against Israeli targets or those suspected of supporting terrorist organizations, and continue to arrest Palestinians wanted for weapons smuggling or illegal weapons possession.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Public Security, “the West Bank saw 39 terror attacks in 2021, down from the IDF’s reported figure of 60 in 2020.”

Hamas, a U.S.-designated FTO and Specially Designated Global Terrorist, maintained de facto control over Gaza in 2021. Hamas and several militant groups, including Sunni violent extremist groups such as PIJ, launched an estimated 4,400 rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza. Hamas and its affiliates launched incendiary balloons and devices toward Israel, damaging farms and nature preserves. Hamas and PIJ tunneling activities continued. Live ammunition from Hamas’s anti-aircraft weapons struck buildings in Israel.

Resource:

Magazine: ISRAEL 101, 2010/StandWithUs. p. 26

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-742947

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-753906

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fathi_Shaqaqi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_Al_Aziz_Awda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan_Shalah

https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/ziyad_al_nakhalah/