Who are Palestinian Islamic Jihad?

Hamas blamed Israel for horrific attack on a hospital in Gaza but the IDF has accused the military group PIJ of being responsible

Hundreds of Palestinians are feared to have been killed in a missile strike on the Anglican Al-Ahli Arabi Hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday evening as the Israel-Gaza conflict continues to intensify.

Officials in the Hamas-run territory initially blamed Israel for the attack but the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) quickly denied any responsibility, instead linking the atrocity to a paramilitary group known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

“An analysis of IDF operational systems indicates that a barrage of rockets was fired by terrorists in Gaza, passing in close proximity to the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza at the time it was hit,” a spokesperson for the Israeli military said in a statement.

“Intelligence from multiple sources we have in our hands indicates that Islamic Jihad is responsible for the failed rocket launch which hit the hospital in Gaza.”

PIJ was founded in 1981 by Palestinian students Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd al-Aziz Awda, who had been members of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and were inspired by the events of the Iranian Revolution to form a splinter group known as Islamic Jihad-Shaqaqi Faction in 1979.

When they were expelled from Egypt two years later following the assassination of the country’s president, Anwar Sadat, they relocated to Gaza and the PIJ, as it is known today, was created.

A hardline Sunni Islamist organisation, PIJ advocates armed resistance against Israel in pursuit of a Palestinian state, rejecting the Oslo Accords and the possibility of a two-state solution.

It is opposed to the Palestinian Authority, does not participate in the political process or diplomatic channels with Israel and has a history of violent engagements beginning in 1984, including organising suicide bombings and participating in the Gaza wars of 2008-09, 2012 and 2014.

The group is primarily based in the Gaza Strip and is an ally of Hamas, although occasional tensions have been known to erupt between the two organisations, according to The New York Times.

PIJ also has ties to Syria and Lebanon and has expressed solidarity with other Islamist causes in the Middle East, including those of Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Both PIJ and Hamas are understood to receive training, weapons and funding from Iran, according to The NYT, and both have been designated terrorist groups by the United States, European Union and United Kingdom.

PIJ’s arsenal includes small arms, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles, Al Jazeera reports.

“Islamic Jihad is known to oppose the peace process and the negotiation approach with Israel. It adopts an armed struggle against the Israeli occupation like Hamas. Islamic Jihad is a very close ally with Iran,” Ibrahim Fraihat of the Doha Institute told the same outlet in May this year after three PIJ leaders were killed in Israeli air raids, one of whom was Ali Ghali, commander of its rocket-launch unit.

Other high-profile PIJ leaders killed in the fighting with Israel include Khaled Mansour and Taysir al-Jabari in 2022 and Bahaa Abu al-Ata in 2019. Shaqaqi, the group’s co-founder, was assassinated in Malta in 1995.

PIJ’s current secretary-general is Ziad al-Nakhalah, who was elected as its leader in 2018.