While Israel has been threatening for several days an imminent ground offensive in Gaza, in retaliation for the unprecedented terrorist attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Israel on October 7, the list of civilian victims of the conflict has further increased. lying down last night. On Tuesday evening, local authorities in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip reported that a strike on the Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza City had killed “between 200 and 300 people”, although the exact toll was not known. is not yet known.
The international community and the United Nations immediately condemned this deadly attack for which the belligerents blamed each other. If the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territory blames Israel, the Hebrew state places the blame on Islamic Jihad. An opinion shared by American President Joe Biden, visiting Israel, who said on Wednesday that “data” shown by his team exonerated Israel. But then what is the Palestinian Islamic Jihad singled out by Israel and what are its differences with Hamas in particular? Explanations.
Influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood
The third Palestinian organization behind Fatah and Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also an Islamist and nationalist movement. It was founded in Cairo (Egypt) by Fathi Shiqaqi, a Palestinian politician initially influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, but who gradually dissociated himself from it by denouncing his lack of commitment to the national liberation struggle. The radical movement was then exported to Gaza, by Palestinian students and intellectuals between 1979 and 1981 and its armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, was created in 1992. It is classified as a “terrorist organization” by the State Department. American in 1997.
Unlike Hamas, in de facto power in Gaza, Palestinian Islamic Jihad only acts through the use of weapons. It is notably responsible for suicide attacks, such as that of March 1996 in Tel Aviv (Israel), which left 13 dead and 75 injured, or that of November 2000 in Jerusalem which killed two people and injured 10 others. “However, like Hamas, the organization does not recognize Israel and is violently opposed to the occupation of the Palestinian Territories,” Myriam Benraad, professor of international relations at Schiller International University and author, explains to L’Express. of Terrorism: the pangs of revenge (Paris, Cavalier Bleu, 2021).
“It is very likely that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was involved in the October 7 attack,” according to Myriam Benraad. On October 9, the armed wing of the Islamist group announced an infiltration into Israel from Lebanon, in support of the Hamas attack. According to Times of Israel, leader Ziyad Nakhaleh claimed his group was holding more than 30 Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Islamic Jihad is in fact closely linked to Hamas even if the latter has sometimes silenced its weapons against Israel – notably when the blockade of Gaza was eased – unlike Islamic Jihad. “Jihad has very radical groups, very active and popular with a certain youth who are desperate both by the occupation and obviously by the absence of any political perspective,” declared a year ago Jean Paul Chagnollau, president of the Middle East research institute at Europe 1.
Torpor and resentment
The power struggle between the two terrorist organizations nevertheless remains significant. If these political desires have been aspired to by Hamas in the context of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is still a real fratricidal war between these two terrorist groups. “Moreover, if Israel is attacking Islamic Jihad today, it is because it wants to eliminate it in the same way as Hamas and sow discord between the two, believes the Middle East specialist Myriam Benraad. In other words, the IDF seeks to divide the Palestinians to weaken this ideological cause which targets the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
A relevant strategy, according to Myriam Benraad, who considers that the already very divided population of Gaza will not emerge from this war unscathed. “The bloody attack of October 7, everything that followed and will follow, will create beyond torpor, a resentment of the people towards Hamas and its allies like Islamic Jihad. The problem is is that on the one hand, it is impossible to openly oppose the power of Hamas when you live in the Gaza Strip – even if you think so, which is beyond doubt given the economic, social and politics of their enclave. And on the other hand there is, for the moment, no other alternative. It therefore remains to be seen what plan the Israeli government is imagining for the post-Hamas era.”