Palestinian Islamic Jihad Targeted by Israel in Gaza

Flame rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Flame rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
TT
20

Palestinian Islamic Jihad Targeted by Israel in Gaza

Flame rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Flame rises during an Israeli air strike, amid Israel-Gaza fighting, in Gaza City August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Israeli officials say airstrikes on Gaza have targeted the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement rather than Hamas, the Islamic resistance group that rules the enclave. What is the difference between the two groups?

According to a report by Reuters on Saturday, the PIJ is an armed group allied with Hamas, both with a background in the Muslim Brotherhood, a shared hostility to Israel and an ideological commitment to the creation of an Islamic Palestinian state.

But the two groups have separate identities and some differences.

Whereas Hamas leaders have made statements softening their commitment to the destruction of Israel, the smaller PIJ has made no such move and rejects any compromises with Israel.

On Friday, as he explained the airstrikes on Israeli television, Prime Minister Yair Lapid described the group as “an Iranian proxy that wants to destroy the state of Israel.”

While it does not have as many long-range rockets as Hamas, PIJ does have a significant arsenal of small arms, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles and an active armed wing called the al-Quds, or Jerusalem Brigades, that has attacked many Israeli targets over the years.

Friday's airstrikes killed Tayseer al-Jaabari, a senior commander who Israel said was the commander of the movement’s northern region, responsible for planning attacks against Israeli citizens and military targets.

Up-to-date figures on PIJ's strength are difficult to come by, with estimates from last year ranging from about 1,000 to several thousand, according to the CIA's World Factbook.

Both Hamas, which has fought five conflicts with Israel since 2009, and PIJ are listed as terrorist organizations by the West.

Both get funds and weapons from Iran, where PIJ leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah was reported to have been meeting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on the day of the strikes.

Unlike Hamas, PIJ refuses to join elections and appears to have no ambition to form a government in Gaza or the West Bank.

It maintains a significant presence in the West Bank town of Jenin, where Bassam al-Saadi, a senior leader of the movement was arrested last week, setting off the crisis that led to Friday’s strikes.

However, its focus is on militant activity. It does not have anything like the same infrastructure or responsibilities as Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and in charge of government and day-to-day needs of more than 2.3 million people.

Little more than a year since the 11-day war of May 2021, which inflicted huge damage on Gaza’s economy, Israel’s explicit focus on PIJ targets appears intended to convince Hamas to stay out of the fighting itself.

Zvika Haimovich, a former commander of the Israel Air Forces who served in previous operations against Gaza in 2012 and 2014, said there were significant disagreements with PIJ that could make Hamas stay out.



Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
TT
20

Gaza Hospital Chief Held in 'Inhumane' Conditions by Israel, Says lawyer

In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP
In this file photo, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital who has since been detained, supervises the treatment of a Palestinian man injured in an Israeli strike - AFP

The director of Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital who was detained by Israeli forces in December is being held in "inhumane" conditions by Israel and subjected to "physical and psychological intimidation", his lawyer told AFP.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a 52-year-old paediatrician, rose to prominence last year by posting about the dire conditions in his besieged hospital in Beit Lahia during a major Israeli offensive.

On December 27, Israeli forces began an assault on the facility which they labelled a Hamas "terrorist centre", and arrested dozens of medical staff including Abu Safiya.

Abu Safiya's lawyer, Gheed Qassem, was able to visit the doctor on March 19 in Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank.

"He is suffering greatly, he is exhausted from the torture, the pressure and the humiliation he has endured to force him to confess to acts he did not commit," said Qassem who met an AFP correspondent in Nazareth.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the conditions in which Abu Safiya is being held.

- 'Beatings and torture' -

After initially spending two weeks in the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel's Negev desert, Abu Safiya was transferred to Ofer, where Israel keeps hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

In Sde Teiman, Abu Safiya was subjected to interrogations "involving beatings, mistreatment and torture", Qassem said, before he was transferred to a cramped cell in Ofer for 25 days, where he was also subjected to questioning.

The Israeli authorities have designated the medic an "illegal combatant" for an "unlimited period of time", Qassem said, and his case has been designated confidential by the military, meaning Abu Safiya's defence cannot access the files.

She denounced what she said were restrictions imposed on legal visits, which have prevented lawyers from informing detainees about "the war, the date, the time or their geographic location".

Her meeting with Abu Safiya, which took place under tight surveillance, lasted for only 17 minutes, she said.

Adopted in 2002, Israel's law concerning "illegal combatants" permits the detention of suspected members of "hostile forces" outside of normal legal frameworks.

In January, rights group Amnesty International demanded Abu Safiya's release, citing witness testimonies describing "the horrifying reality" in Israeli prisons, where Palestinian detainees are subjected to "systematic acts of torture and other mistreatment".

A social media campaign using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya has brought together healthcare organizations, celebrities and UN leaders.

That includes the director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who demanded Abu Safiya's release in a post on X.

- 'Human duty' -

Qassem warned that her client's health was "very worrying".

"He is suffering from arterial tension, cardiac arrhythmia and vision problems," she said, adding "he has lost 20 kilos in two months and fractured four ribs during interrogations, without receiving proper medical care".

The doctor remains calm, she said, but "wonders what crime he has committed" to be subjected to "such inhumane conditions".

According to the lawyer, Abu Safiya's jailers are demanding that he confess to having operated on members of Hamas or Israeli hostages held in Gaza, but he has refused to do so and denies the accusations.

The doctor insists that he is just a paediatrician, "and everything he did was out of a moral, professional and human duty towards the patients and the wounded", Qassem said.

Since October 7, 2023, around 5,000 Gazans have been arrested by Israel, and some were subsequently released in exchange for hostages held in Gaza.

In general, they are accused of "belonging to a terrorist organizfation" or of posing "a threat to Israel's security," the lawyer said.

Qassem said that a number of detainees are being held without charge or trial and that their lawyers often did not know where their clients were during the first months of the war.