| Popular Resistance Committees لجان المقاومة الشعبية | |
|---|---|
 Emblem of the Popular Resistance Committees | |
| Leader | Jamal Abu Samhadana (2000–2006) 'Amir Qarmoot Abu As-Sa'id (2006–2008) Kamal al-Nirab (2008–2011) Zuhir al-Qaisi (2011–2012) Ayman al-Shashniya (2012–present) |
| Dates of operation | 2000–present |
| Split from | Fatah |
| Group | Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades |
| Active regions | Gaza Strip |
| Ideology | |
| Allies |  Iran Hezbollah[1] |
| Opponents |  Israel Palestinian Authority |
| Designated as a terrorist group by |  United StatesIsrael |
ThePopular Resistance Committees (PRC;Arabic:لجان المقاومة الشعبية,Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya) is a coalition of a number of armedPalestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of thePalestinian Authority andFatah towardsIsrael.
The PRC is especially active in theGaza Strip, through its military wing, theAl-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades.[2] The PRC has planned and executed a number of varied operations, but specializes in planting roadside bombs and vehicle explosive charges - directed against military and civilian convoys.
Formed in late 2000 by formerFatah andTanzim memberJamal Abu Samhadana, the PRC is composed primarily of ex-Fatah fighters andAl-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members and is alleged by Israel to be inspired and financed byHezbollah. The present leader of PRC is Ayman al-Shashniya.[3]
The PRC was believed to be the third strongest faction active in the Gaza Strip, afterHamas andIslamic Jihad in 2012.[4] It is currently fighting alongside Hamas and otherallied Palestinian factions in the ongoingGaza war (2023–present).[5][6] It has been designated aterrorist organization byIsrael and theUnited States.
The PRC was formed in late 2000 by former Fatah and Tanzim member Jamal Abu Samhadana, and is composed primarily of ex-Fatah fighters and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members.
On 15 October 2003, explosives destroyed aUS diplomatic convoy atBeit Hanoun, killing three security guards and severely wounding a diplomat.[7] The PRC initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but later denied carrying out the attack, saying it was against Palestinian interests.[8] The US demanded that thePalestinian National Authority find those responsible and bring them to justice. Palestinian officials said that because of lack of progress in the attack investigation, the US halted financial support for the PA and placed unofficial sanctions on its accounts. After heavy US pressure, the Palestinian Authority arrested several PRC members, accusing them of being responsible. The PRC confirmed the men were PRC members. The PA tried the four "suspects" in a Palestinian military court, but intelligence agencies dismissed the tribunal as a "mock trial" and said while the suspects were PRC activists, they were not those responsible for the attack. The men were released in March 2004.
The Jenin Martyr's Brigade was formed in March 2003 as a part of the PRC. Besides other activities, the JMB claimed responsibility for theMarch 2003 bombing of an Israeli bus in Haifa. The bus was blown to pieces when a suicide bomber, seated in the rear of the vehicle, detonated 10-15 kilograms of shrapnel-laced explosives that were attached to his body. 16 people died in the blast, and another 30-40 were injured.[9] On 17 July 2004, the group kidnappedPalestinian Civil Police Forces ChiefGhazi al-Jabali at gunpoint in an ambush of his convoy which wounded two bodyguards. Al-Jabali was only released after Palestinian PresidentYasser Arafat agreed to PRC demands that he be fired.[10][11][12]
The PRC are also involved inRafah'ssmuggling tunnels[13] which have been used to smuggle weapons, explosives, fugitives and civilian supplies etc.[14][15][16][17]
The PRC claimed responsibility for the assassination ofMoussa Arafat on 7 September 2005.
On 8 June 2006, PRC leader Jamal Abu Samhadana was killed by IDF forces, along with at least three other PRC members. As the man considered responsible for a number of attacks, including the bombing of a children's school bus near Kfar Darom in November 2000 and for the 2003 infiltration into an IDF outpost in Rafah that left several soldiers dead, he was considered one of the most wanted Palestinians on theIDF's hit-list.[18][19]
On Sunday, 25 June 2006, the PRC, together with Hamas andJaish al-Islam ("the Army of Islam"), launched a major attack via a tunnel near theKerem Shalom outpost. Eight Palestinian fighters used a nearly one kilometre tunnel that they had dug over the past several months to cross under the border between Gaza and Israel. The surprise attack ended with two Israeli soldiers dead and four wounded and the capture of CorporalGilad Shalit. Two of the Palestinian attackers were killed while the other six made it back to the Gaza Strip with Shalit. Shalit was released five years later in a prisoner exchange.[20][21]
The same day of the tunnel attack,Eliyahu Asheri, an 18-year-old Israeli student, went missing near theWest Bank. The PRC shortly claimed responsibility for kidnapping and murdering him. Spokesman for the group, Abu Abir, also announced that the PRC had formed special units in the West Bank whose sole purpose is to kidnap soldiers and settlers, in accordance with the continued Operation "Cavaliers' Wrath."[18][22][23]
On 8 August 2007, the PRC announced that it would form a political party to run in future Palestinian elections. It vowed, however, to keep its armed wing intact.[24] In February 2008 then PRC leader'Amir Qarmoot Abu As-Sa'id was killed in an Israeli airstrike.[25]
On 25 August 2007, militants from the PRC andDemocratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attempted to enter the Israeli border town ofNetiv HaAsara from Gaza. The militants used a ladder to scale theIsrael-Gaza border, and two militants were killed by theIsrael Defense Forces.[26]
On 18 August 2011, Israel accused the PRC of committing the2011 southern Israel attacks in which 8 Israelis were killed in firing andsuicide bombing on two buses and a car near the Israeli-Egyptian border north toEilat. On the evening of the same day, theIsraeli Air Force, working withShin Bet,[27] bombed the homes of PRC members inRafah. Among the dead, as identified by the group, were their commander, Kamal al-Nairab and Immad Hammad, chief of its military wingAl-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades,[28] and at least two more top members of the group and another member.[27][29][30] The PRC responded to the raids in saying that it vows "double" revenge for the attack.[27]
On 9 March 2012, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed PRC secretary-generalZuhir al-Qaisi (Zuhair al-Qaissi) as well asMahmoud Hanani.[31]
In July 2013, Hamas cracked down on PRC activities in Gaza, arresting a number of PRC members.[32]
In October 2023, during the ongoing Gaza war, Israel claimed to have killed the head of PRC's armed wing, Rafat Abu Hilal, in an airstrike inRafah.[33]
The PRC have been involved in a number ofbombing attacks on both military and civilian targets in theGaza Strip, including:
According to Israel, the relation between the PRC andHezbollah is more than coincidental. Israel alleges the organization enjoys financing and technical support from Hezbollah since its founding, and is a sort of proxy of Hezbollah's influence in theGaza Strip.[47][48] The organization outwardly projects this relation through its mimicry of the Hezbollah flag which also bears a fist clenching a Kalashnikov rifle and stylized writing.
However, in recent times since the start of theSyrian Civil War the group has distanced itself fromHezbollah andIran even condemningIran's involvement andHezbollah's involvement in the war. The group released a video in June 2016 called "One Nation" where they showed signs labelled with various cities includingAleppo,Gaza,Jerusalem,Fallujah, andSanaa covered in blood referencing confrontations involving Iranian backed militias such as theBattle of Aleppo andBattle of Fallujah (2016), while a speaker from the group discussed the group's solidarity withSunnis affected by the conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.[49]
