Activities
The al-Aqsa brigades are responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and many more shooting attacks against Israeli vehicles in the West Bank. For a complete list of the suicide bombings carried out by the organization see: List of Palestinian suicide attacks.
Some notable suicide bombings committed by the group were:
- January 2002: Bat Mitzvah massacre, when a gunman killed six and wounded 33 in a Bat Mitzvah celebration.
- 19 February 2002: an attack on an IDF checkpoint at Ein 'Arik, near Ramallah, where one officer and five soldiers were killed.
- 3 March 2002: an attack by a single sniper on an IDF checkpoint at Wadi al-Haramiya, near Ofra, where 2 officers and five soldiers were killed and five soldiers wounded. Three civilian settlers were also killed in the incident.
- 2 March 2002: Beit Yisrael, Jerusalem - 11 killed.
- 5 January 2003: Southern Tel Aviv central bus station - 22 killed.
- 29 January 2004: Rehavia, Jerusalem, bus line 19 - 11 killed.
- 14 March 2004: Port of Ashdod - 10 killed (together with Hamas).
On 16 October 2005, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for a shooting attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, killing three Israelis and wounding three others.
On 24 March 2004, a Palestinian teenager named Hussam Abdo was caught in an IDF checkpoint carrying an explosive belt. Following his arrest, an al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade teenagers' militant cell was exposed and arrested in Nablus. On 23 September 2004, a 15-year-old suicide bomber was arrested by Israeli security forces.
The Brigades, like many militia groups, is noted for the use of promotional posters in the main cities of the Palestinian territories. The Brigades have attacked Palestinians as well as Israelis. In November and December 2003, they killed the brother of Ghassan Shakaa (the mayor of Nablus). In February 2004 Shakaa filed his resignation from office in protest of the Palestinian Authority's lack of action against the armed militias "rampaging" the city. During the first three months of 2004, a number of attacks on journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were blamed on the Brigades as well, including the attack on the Arab television station Al Arabiya's West Bank offices by masked men who identified themselves as members of the Brigades. Palestinian journalists in Gaza called a general strike on 0 February 2004 to protest this rising violence against journalists.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have taken prominent part in the July 2004 riots in the Gaza Strip, in which Palestinian officers were kidnapped and PA security headquarters buildings and policemen were attacked by gunmen. These riots led the Palestinian cabinet to declare a state of emergency. One media outlet described the situation in the Palestinian Authority as anarchy and chaos.
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have carried out several joint attacks with the Islamist group Hamas. These attacks were committed mainly in the Gaza Strip. See also: PLO and Hamas. The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades have also carried out joint attack with other militant groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, The Popular Resistance Committees and with Hezbollah in the West Bank.
The European Union's Gaza offices were raided by 15 masked gunmen from al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades on 30 January 2006. They demanded apologies from Denmark and Norway regarding the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons and left 30 minutes later without shots fired or injuries.
On 9 June 2007, in a failed assault on an IDF position at the Kissufim crossing between Gaza and Israel in a possible attempt to kidnap IDF soldiers, 4 armed members of the al-Quds Brigades - the military wing of Islamic Jihad - and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - the military wing of Fatah -, used a vehicle marked with "TV" and "PRESS" insignias penetrated the border fence and assaulted a guard tower in what Islamic Jihad and the army said was a failed attempt to capture an Israeli soldier. IDF troops killed one militant, while the others escaped.
The use of a vehicle that resembled a press vehicle evoked a sharp response from many journalists and news organizations, including the Foreign Press Association and Human Rights Watch.
On 14 July 2007, Zakaria Zubeidi, considered the local al-Aqsa leader for Jenin and the northern West Bank and has been wanted for many years for his terrorist activity against Israel, agreed to cease fighting against Israel after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave conditional pardon for 178 terrorists in the PA territories.
Read more about this topic: Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
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