We ‘don’t agree with Hamas’s idea of a long ceasefire with Israel,’ group’s former leader says
Considered more radical and extremist than even Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has been fighting Israel almost from the moment it was spawned from the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood party in 1981.
Its charter calls for the total annihilation of Israel, and it rejects any political or peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, an idea sometimes floated in an effort to halt the violence, if even for a while, is anathema to the PIJ.
Former PIJ Leader Ramadan Shalah said in 2009 that while the PIJ and Hamas shared “the same Islamic identity,” they differed tactically.
“I don’t agree with Hamas’s idea of a long ceasefire with Israel, because Israel will only use the time to make things worse,” he declared.
This obduracy has put the PIJ at odds with Hamas, notably in 2019 after PIJ leader Baha Abu Al Ata was eliminated and the PIJ launched attacks on Israel even though Hamas didn’t want escalation.
Unlike Hamas, but like Hezbollah in Lebanon, PIJ is very much an Iranian proxy. Tehran supplies it with funding and weapons, notably Iranian-made missiles and advanced armed drones that Gaza militants cannot manufacture locally. The PIJ leadership is also in direct and regular contact with Iranian leaders.
Although primarily Gaza-based, the PIJ is also making inroads in the West Bank, its members regularly confronting the Israeli army during the latter’s almost-nightly search-and-arrest raids.
It was the arrest last week of PIJ West Bank head Bassam al-Saadi and his son-in-law which sparked the current tensions, as the PIJ vowed revenge, and Israel raised its alert level in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, and closed Gaza-area roads to civilian vehicles.
According to the army, at the start of Operation “Breaking Dawn,” the PIJ arsenal included around 5,500 rockets and missiles. While most are short or medium range, with a limit of up to 28 miles, the group also has several long-range systems, with ranges of up to 50 miles, which could hit Tel Aviv and its northern suburbs, or even Jerusalem.
To this can be added the formidable rocket arsenal of Hamas, (around 6,000 missiles, some with ranges of up to 125 miles) should it decide to join the fighting