Israel killed enemies in their own house: what is Palestine Islamic Jihad, whose commanders are selectively killing Israel

About 33 months ago on 12 November 2019, the Supreme Commander of Palestine Islamic Jihad, ie PIJ, Baha Abu al-Ata was killed by Israel. After this, the top commander of the PIJ, Taysir al-Jabari, threatened Israel with an attack.

Since then, al-Jabari has been the target of Mossad, the world's most dangerous Israeli intelligence. Finally, on Friday, the Israeli army killed Taysir al-Jabari and on Sunday another top commander, Khalid Mansour.

Israel has no qualms about killing its enemies in its own home. Earlier on 16 May 2021, the Israel Defense Force claimed to have killed 30 radicals of Central Hamas and PIJ through air strikes in Gaza.

Why is Palestine Islamic Jihad in the news now?

One of the dangerous fundamentalist organizations PIJ i.e. Palestine Islamic Jihad is currently in discussion after the killing of its top commanders Taysir al-Jabari and Khalid Mansour. Tayseer was not only the big face of PIJ but also the biggest commander of PIJ in North Palestine.

Israel launched 'Operation Breaking Dawn' to kill al-Jabari, one of its biggest enemies. More than 30 people have died in this Israeli attack. In response, the radical organization also fired more than 100 missiles in the residential areas of Israel within 2 hours. Since then the fighting has been going on from both sides.

Palestine Islamic Jihad started in 1981

PIJ, or Palestine Islamic Jihad, is currently the second largest radical organization in Gaza, Palestine, after Hamas. PIJ was started in 1981 in Egypt under the name of the Muslim Brotherhood. The foundation of this organization was laid by Fatehi Shakaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda.

PIJ was getting the support of two big countries from the beginning. The first of these was Iran and the second was Syria. In 2007, Hamas took control of Gaza. Since then, Hamas's hands have been tied. On the other hand, Islamic Jihad has no such responsibility, so it is more active in extremist activities. On some occasions, it has even challenged the dominance of Hamas.

The motive behind starting PIJ is to liberate Jerusalem

This is from 74 years ago. In 1948, a major war broke out between Israel and the Arab countries. In this war, Israel was on one side, and on the other side were Arabs, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Israel had won in this fierce war that lasted for 10 months.

Israel occupied half of the city of Jerusalem and parts of Palestine. After this, many Palestinian organizations became active to liberate this part of Israel occupied.

One of these organizations is PIJ. Since the formation of the organization, its only objective has been to form the Islamic Palestinian State by joining the West Bank, Gaza, and the area called New Israel. The United States, the European Union, and many other governments of the world have declared it a terrorist organization.

Iran gives 1.2 thousand crore rupees every year to PIJ

Iran provides training as well as money to the terrorists of Palestine Islamic Jihad. However, the weapons for this faction are prepared at the local level only.

According to the US State Department, in 1988, Iran gave 2 million dollars, i.e. 16 crores, to the PIJ from its annual budget. Since then Iran has been steadily increasing its funding for the PIJ. At the end of 2013, the radical group received about $3 million a month, or Rs 24 crore, from Iran.

Ali Noorizadeh, director of the Center for Iranian Studies in London, claimed in his February 2014 report that Iran gives aid to the PIJ from $100 to 150 million annually, i.e. Rs 793 crore to 1.2 thousand crore rupees.

In January 2016 Iran cuts PIJ funding by 90% due to differences with Saudi Arabia. However, in May 2016, Iran again began providing aid to the PIJ. In June 2020, Qatar was also accused of funding the PIJ.

Islamic Jihad Base Gaza, But Big Leaders Live In Iran

Gaza is the base of Islamic Jihad. According to the US State Department, top PIJ leaders live in Syria and some other leaders live in Lebanon. All of them have very close ties with the Iranian government. International Arabic language newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported in 2012 that top PIJ extremists had moved from Syria to Iran.

The PIJ began recruiting suicide bombers in the early 1990s. Initially, women were not recruited for this, but in 2003, women were also made suicide bombers.

PIJ's first female suicide bomber was 19-year-old student Hiba Darghameh. Hiba attacked a shopping mall, killing three people. On the other hand, 29-year-old lawyer Hanadi Jaradat blew himself up in a restaurant in October 2003, killing 21 people.

PIJ threatens Israel with rocket attacks

Islamic Jihad is also one of the two major extremist groups in the Gaza Strip. This ruling bloc is much smaller than Hamas. However, it has gathered a lot of power on the strength of money and weapons received from Iran. In recent years, it has developed weapons on par with Hamas. These also include long-range rockets capable of hitting Israel's Tel Aviv. These days this organization is very active in the skirmishes and rocket attacks with Israel.

Also Read: Israeli Airstrike on Palestine: Hamas Commander Taysir Jabari was Killed; 100 rockets were also fired at Israel in 2 hours