FACTBOX-What is Islamic Jihad?
Source: Reuters
Sept 5 (Reuters) - Germany has arrested three men it suspects of planning "massive bomb attacks" on U.S. installations and belonging to a domestic cell of the Islamic Jihad militant group, German officials said on Wednesday. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States. Here are some facts about the group: * The PIJ 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. * The group was founded in the late 1970s by Fathhi Shiqaqi, Abd al-Aziz and Bashir Muza. All were Palestinians but were disillusioned with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and with the lack of support shown towards the Palestinian struggle. Shiqaqi was assassinated in 1995 by Israeli security agents. It began attacks in Israeli-occupied Gaza in the early 1980s with a series of stabbings of Israelis and shootings at army bases. * Islamic Jihad, along with militants from larger Islamist faction Hamas, began a suicide bombing campaign against Israelis in 1994 after a far-right Jew massacred 29 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque. A few months before, the mainstream Palestinian Fatah leadership had reached an interim peace deal with Israel. * Islamic Jihad, along with Hamas and Fatah militants, in 2000 launched a revolt including a wave of suicide attacks in Israel, before adopting a de facto ceasefire in February 2005 at the behest of new moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. * The group has since been involved in scattered attacks that broke the 2005 truce and Israel has carried on targeting the group. At the end of August Israeli undercover forces killed Ala Abu Srour, the group's local leader in the West Bank city of Jenin. * Islamic Jihad last carried out a suicide attack in Israel on Jan. 29, when three people were killed in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. Sources: Reuters/Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism 2007
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