The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine (Arabic: حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn) known in the West as simply Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a small Palestinian militant organization.[1] The group has been designated as a terrorist group by the United States[2], the European Union[3], the United Kingdom[4], Japan[5], Canada[6], Australia[7] and Israel. Their goal is the destruction of the state of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state.[8] softinn.blogspot.comThis group defines jihad as acts of war against Israelis.[citation needed] Palestinian Islamic Jihad also opposes many other Arab governments, whom they see as being insufficiently Islamic and too Western. The PIJ's armed wing, the Al-Quds brigades, has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks in Israel, including suicide bombings. Their ability to carry out attacks on Israel has been limited since Israel's construction of the West Bank barrier and the isolation of the Gaza Strip, although they frequently threaten waves of "martyrdom operations".[citation needed] The group is responsible for the Qassam rocket barrages at Israeli towns that have killed and injured civilians, and cause widespread hardship in communities in Israel's south (see: List of Qassam rocket attacks).[citation needed] The rockets are primarily launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Islamic Jihad is significantly smaller than Hamas, and lacks the wide social network that Hamas has. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad was formed in the Gaza Strip during the 1970s by Fathi Shaqaqi and Abd Al Aziz Awda as a branch of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an organization currently led by Ramadan Abdullah Mohammad Shallah. The group is also said to receive some funding from Hezbollah. The group has also clashed repeatedly with Hamas following the latter's takeover of the Gaza strip in mid-2007.