Islamic Jihad of Palestine << ihs LAH mihk, or ihz LAH mihk, jih HAHD uhv PAL uh `styn` >> is a radical Palestinian group. It does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and seeks to establish an Islamic state in the historic region of Palestine. This region today consists of Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories called the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Islamic Jihad is much smaller than a similar Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Like Hamas, Islamic Jihad has carried out suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets. The two groups have often worked together.
Islamic Jihad was founded around 1980 by Fathi Shiqaqi and a few other Palestinians. They were inspired by the 1979 revolution in Iran that turned that country into an Islamic republic. Islamic Jihad began organizing in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the early 1980’s. In 1987, the group launched one of its first attacks, the killing of an Israeli military police captain in the Gaza Strip. In 1995, Shiqaqi was killed in Malta by assassins believed to be working for Israel.
See also Jihad.
