Following are some facts about Islamic Jihad:

* Israelis and Palestinians have blamed each other for bombing of Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City late on Oct. 17. Israel said Islamic Jihad was responsible, saying a failed rocket launch by the group hit the hospital. Islamic Jihad denied this, saying it did not have any activity in or around Gaza City at that time.

* Founded in the late 1970s by Fathi Shiqaqi and Abdel-Aziz Odeh, Islamic Jihad gained support among Palestinians disillusioned with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Shiqaqi was assassinated in 1995 in Malta, apparently by Israeli agents.

* The group is sworn to destroying Israel and replacing it with an Islamic state spanning what was pre-1948 British Mandate Palestine, including the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

* A recipient of Iranian funding and know-how estimated by Israel to be in the tens of millions of dollars annually, Islamic Jihad has foreign headquarters in Beirut and Damascus and its deployment in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, while more limited than in Gaza, has recently grown.

* Islamic Jihad has the second-biggest armed network in Gaza after that of the enclave’s governing militant group Hamas. Up-to-date figures on Islamic Jihad’s strength are difficult to come by, with 2021 estimates ranging from about 1,000 to several thousand gunmen, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. The group also has a significant arsenal of rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles. Islamic Jihad does not disclose such information.

* Unlike Hamas, Islamic Jihad has not contested Palestinian parliamentary elections and appears to have no ambition to form a government in Gaza or the West Bank.

* Islamic Jihad is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and European countries.

(This story has been refiled to remove repeated words in paragraph 7)

“Those who rush towards normalisation with the Zionist project must know, and they do know, that this is their acknowledgment that Palestine is not ours, and that Jerusalem with its mosque is not ours,” Ziad al-Nakhala, who is wanted by Israel and designated a terrorist by the United States and others, said in the video address.

The remarks were broadcast to demonstrators in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria, who marked the 36th anniversary of the founding of the movement.

Armed and masked militants attended the Gaza rally dressed in military style uniforms. Organizers placed two giant flags of Israel and the United States for participants to step on as they arrived at the gathering at an open-air field.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which seeks the destruction of Israel, has fought repeated battles with the Israeli military in recent years and has always rejected any political compromise. It is based in Gaza, a strip of territory controlled by rival militant group Hamas, and also has foreign headquarters in Beirut and Damascus.

U.S. President Joe Biden has encouraged Saudi Arabia and Israel to seek an agreement that would build on earlier accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, as well as Morocco and Sudan. Any deal is seen as some way off, with the status of the Palestinians among the key issues to be decided.

Al-Nakhala also condemned the Palestinian Authority, the body born out of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago which exercises limited governance in the occupied West Bank, as its security forces clashed briefly with Islamic Jihad militants at a rally in the town of Tulkarm.

“Israel kills us with American weapons, and the so-called security services chase us and arrest us upon American decision too,” he said, demanding the PA release all Palestinian militants it held in detention.

Hours after his comments, unidentified gunmen in the northern West Bank city of Jenin opened fire on the local headquarters of the Palestinian administration.

Al-Nakhala said Islamic Jihad remained opposed not only to normalising relations with Israel, but also to the entire peace process that started with the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt in 1978.

“We affirm that our resistance continues, and the Islamic Jihad Movement, born from the spirit of Islam, still perseveres in its path. It has not compromised and will not surrender to delusions,” he said.

Gaza City (AP) — Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip agreed to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire late Saturday, seeking to halt five days of intense fighting that killed 33 Palestinians, including at least 13 civilians. Two people in Israel were killed by rocket fire.

The tenuous cease-fire appeared to take effect just after 10 p.m., with a last-minute burst of rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes stretching several minutes past the deadline announced by Egypt. Late Saturday, Israel reported additional incoming fire and said it was again striking in Gaza. But the calm appeared to be quickly restored.

While the calm appeared to bring a sense of relief to Gaza’s more than 2 million people and hundreds of thousands of Israelis who had been largely confined to bomb shelters in recent days, the agreement did nothing to address the underlying issues that have fueled numerous rounds of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip over the years.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad spokesman Tareq Selmi said Israel had agreed to halt its policy of targeted strikes on the group’s leaders. “Any stupidity or assassination by the occupation will be met with a response and the Zionist enemy bears the responsibility,” he said.

But in a statement thanking Egypt for its mediation efforts, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Nanegbi, said that “quiet would be answered with quiet” and Israel would do “everything that it needs to in order to defend itself.”

Tensions could quickly resume next week when Israel holds a contentious march through a main Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Still, as the truce took hold, the deafening whooshes of outgoing rockets and booms of Israeli airstrikes were replaced by the honking of cars in Gaza. Streets that had been desolate in recent days quickly teemed with people reveling in the ceasefire, waving Palestinian flags and flashing victory signs from speeding vehicles. Amid the celebration, a fruit vendor used a loudspeaker, enthusiastically promoting his supply of bananas.

The latest violence erupted Tuesday when Israeli airstrikes killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders. Israel said the airstrikes were in response to a burst of rocket fire the previous week and that its attacks have been focused on Islamic Jihad targets. But residents in Gaza said homes of people uninvolved in fighting also had been struck.

At least 10 civilians, including women, young children and uninvolved neighbors were killed in those initial strikes, which drew regional condemnation.

Over the past few days, Israel has conducted more airstrikes, killing other senior Islamic Jihad commanders and destroying their command centers and rocket-launching sites. But the airstrikes showed no signs of stopping the rocket fire, prompting Islamic Jihad to declare victory.

Israel reported over 1,200 launches throughout the fighting, with some rockets reaching as far as the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. Israel said about a quarter of the rockets were misfired and landed in Gaza, while most of the rest were either intercepted or landed in open areas. But an 80-year-old woman and a Palestinian laborer who was working inside Israel were killed by rocket fire. A Palestinian human rights group said three people, including two children, were killed in Gaza by errant rockets.

It was the latest in a long series of battles between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control of the seaside territory in 2007. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars, and there have been numerous smaller flareups as well.

Saturday’s deal did not address many of the many of the causes of the repeated fighting, including Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza, the large arsenals of weapons possessed by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians claim all three areas for a future state. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but Hamas subsequently overran the territory and expelled forces loyal to the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade over Gaza in what Israel says is a policy aimed at preventing Hamas from arming. The Palestinians and international rights groups say the policy, which restricts the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza, amount to collective punishment.

The Palestinian Authority, which governs semi-autonomous parts of the West Bank, said Gaza’s main cargo crossing with Israel would open Sunday. Hamas’ government warned on Saturday that if the crossing doesn’t open, the lone power plant in Gaza will stop, further deepening a power crisis.

The more powerful Hamas has praised Islamic Jihad’s strikes but remained on the sidelines during the latest round of fighting, limiting the scope of the conflict. As the de facto government held responsible for the abysmal conditions in the blockaded Gaza Strip, Hamas has recently tried to keep a lid on its conflict with Israel. Islamic Jihad, on the other hand, a more ideological and unruly militant group wedded to violence, has taken the lead in the past few rounds of fighting with Israel.

In a reminder of the combustible situation in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military raided the Balata refugee camp near the northern city of Nablus, sparking a firefight that killed two Palestinians. In a separate incident near the northern city of Jenin, Israeli police said they shot and killed a suspected Palestinian assailant who ran toward soldiers wielding a knife.

Israeli-Palestinian fighting has surged in the West Bank under Israel’s most right-wing government in history. Since the start of the year, 111 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, at least half of them affiliated with militant groups, according to a tally by The Associated Press. In that time, 20 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

The truce could be further tested on Thursday when Israeli nationalists plan their annual “Jerusalem Day” march through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The march, meant to celebrate Israel’s capture of the Old City and its Jewish holy sites in 1967, is a frequent source of friction and helped spark an 11-day war with Hamas in 2021.

On Saturday, Palestinians in Gaza ventured out to assess the damage wrought by Israeli warplanes and salvage whatever they could from four destroyed homes in a densely populated neighborhood. Residents denied the army’s claims that it had attacked Islamic Jihad targets.

“We have no rocket launching pads at all. This is a residential area,” said Awni Obaid, beside the debris of what was his three-story house in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

The nearby house of his relative, Jehad Obaid, was also leveled.

“I felt like vomiting because of the dust,” he said. “This is extraordinary hatred. They claim they don’t strike at children, but what we see is craziness, destruction.”

Hanegbi added that Israel was more focused on firing on Gaza militants presently than on reaching a ceasefire that will end the latest round of cross border fighting which began on Tuesday.

“We’re not holding ceasefire talks,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told a municipal event near Jerusalem, adding that Israel’s top priority was presently firing on militants.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on the outskirts of Nablus in the northern West Bank, where clashes had erupted, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. A military spokesman said gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces.

Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said it would press on with rocket salvoes as fighting entered a fifth day. “The resistance prepared itself for months of confrontation,” Islamic Jihad said a statement.

The Israeli military said aircraft struck Islamic Jihad command centres and rocket launchers in Gaza. Huge clouds of smoke rose as loud explosions ripped through areas bombed.

In the Deir Al-Balah area of the central Gaza Strip, a building was flattened as houses nearby were knocked down. There were no reports of casualties as residents sifted through piles of rubble.

“Destruction is miserable, the mind doesn’t accept it,” a resident, Marwan Al-Dirawi, told Reuters.

Air strikes on a house also damaged the nearby Shuhada Al-Aqsa hospital, wounding a number of nurses and patients with flying shrapnel, Eyad Abu Zaher, the hospital’s director, said.

Israel’s military says it has made every effort to limit civilian casualties and damage to houses and accuses Islamic Jihad of deliberately locating its command centres in residential areas.

From dawn, Gaza militants fired rockets, setting off sirens and sending Israelis across the border running to bomb shelters. At least two people were badly wounded by shrapnel, Israel’s ambulance service said.

Egyptian Mediation

Egypt has been trying to mediate a truce to the latest outbreak of violence, which has so far killed at least 33 Palestinians and one Israeli.

At least four women and six children have died in Gaza, an impoverished coastal territory blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. In Israel, one woman was killed when an apartment was hit by a Gaza rocket near Tel Aviv.

A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks described them as “complicated” and “tough” but also said that Cairo was pressing ahead with its efforts.

Six top commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad have been killed since Tuesday, when Israeli forces launched a campaign against the group, which it said was planning attacks.

Israeli military officials have said they have seen no sign that Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip, has fired missiles itself and air strikes have so far targeted only Islamic Jihad sites.

Islamic Jihad, the largest armed group in Gaza after Hamas, has since fired more than 1,000 rockets, some deep into Israel.

Hanegbi said its arsenal had stood at 6,000 rockets. Islamic Jihad has not provided details on its weaponry but 5,000 remaining projectiles would enable it to keep up an intense rate of fire for several days. That timeline would likely change were Hamas to join the fighting.

Like Hamas, Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Top ministers of Israel’s religious nationalist government rule out any state sought by Palestinians in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by William Mallard

There is something in the way Israel and Hamas engage in Gaza which is reminiscent of two bullies in the school yard who, before they come to their senses and talk through their differences, first feel compelled to use their fists to bloody each other.

Over the past weeks hostile incidents have increased on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. The form these hostilities take is not unfamiliar, and neither side has any interest in a full-blown conflict. Instead, Hamas is trying to break with the status quo by launching dozens of incendiary balloons into Israel, causing fires and burning fields; and Israel is reacting with air strikes on what it describes as Hamas targets, and in addition has halted all financial aid from being transferred to the Gaza Strip and prevented diesel fuel shipments to the only power station in the blockaded territory. Both measures are bound to cause further hardship to the two million Palestinians in Gaza, including a reduction in their power supply to three or four hours a day, making the lives of ordinary Gazans even more difficult than they already are.

On this occasion, as on quite a few others in the past, Egypt has assumed the role of the mediator attempting to prevent escalation, with Qatar weighing in, desperately trying to prevent what might lead to another round of bloodshed. Both sides know from experience that days, even weeks, of fighting won’t end in a decisive victory for either, only some tactical gains at best. Experience also teaches us that this deadly ritual always ends with many Palestinian casualties and the destruction of infrastructure in the tiny piece of Hamas-controlled territory; while Hamas keeps firing rockets and missiles deep inside Israel, disrupting life there, though with limited number of casualties thanks to Israel’s effective air-defence systems, until another cease-fire is brokered.

Egypt was quick to send senior intelligence officials to meet Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders to try and de-escalate the situation; however, it will take more than leaning on the leadership of these organisations to ensure long-term calm along the border with Israel. For Hamas especially, its options are to either demonstrate to the people of Gaza that it can improve the dire conditions they have endured since it came to power in 2006, or else fashion itself as the last Palestinian movement to continue the armed struggle against Israel. And even then, its leaders can only hope that the long-suffering population will still stay loyal to them.

Nevertheless, the Hamas 2020 model is mainly a status quo organisation that would like to consolidate its control over the Gaza Strip in the hope that if and when elections are held it will make substantial electoral gains there, as well as in the West Bank, which at the moment is firmly controlled by Fatah. As frustrating for Israel as are the incendiary balloons, especially for its citizens living close to the border, they are mainly a disruptive irritant; unlike the strategic threat represented by Hezbollah’s capabilities on the country’s northern border with Lebanon, these balloons are more of a reminder by Hamas that it is mainly interested in the implementation of understandings reached earlier this year that Israel will ease its blockade in exchange for calm along the Gazan border. Hamas, for now, is refraining from the use of firearms, including rockets and missiles, to signal that it wants to avoid raising the threshold of violence, but nevertheless is keen to remind all concerned that the current situation is unacceptable, for the organization itself and the people of Gaza.  

For Hamas to maintain its power base in Gaza it needs to improve living conditions in this tiny piece of land, which is one of the most densely populated areas on earth, and it can’t do that unless Israel eases the blockade and Egypt allows more people and goods to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. On the face of it there is nothing unreasonable in what Hamas is asking. The Gaza Strip has never recovered from several rounds of hostilities in which infrastructure has been partly or completely destroyed, let alone the horrendous consequences of 14 years of blockade. In their meeting with the Egyptian officials who visited Gaza this week, Hamas asked for controversial dual-use goods to be allowed to enter the Strip, for restrictions on trade to be eased by issuing permits for up to 100,000 Gazans to work in Israel and the West Bank, for their fishing zone to be enlarged, and for the maintaining of the continuous and predictable movement of people inside and outside Gaza; and together with UNRWA to enable projects that will create jobs and improve lives.  

While the interests of both Israel and Hamas favor an easing of the blockade in exchange for calm along the borders, not only to avoid further conflict but also to create a culture of dialogue and long-term coexistence ranging from a permanent cease-fire to a permanent peace, the continuing distrust and hostile rhetoric serve only to further undermine those mutual aspirations. Israel still refuses to accept that Hamas is a political fact of life, even if an undesirable one that it has little hope of eliminating militarily, and that it is not going to be challenged from within Gaza no matter how miserable Israel makes the lives of its people. Moreover, it has also not faced the fact that Hamas is not the same movement it was when it came to power, but is now a much more pragmatic one despite its rigid ideological framework.

In this context both Israel and Hamas, with the proactive involvement of the international community, must ensure that the security and wellbeing of Gaza’s people does not become a bargaining chip and that both sides, despite their mutual suspicions, learn to build a constructive and peaceful coexistence.

Article first published on Arab News.

Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international written and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg