Hamas has overshadowed rival Palestinian militant groups with the brutality and scale of the October 7 attacks on Israel.
The attention of both Tel Aviv and the world media has been on the capabilities and goals of Hamas as the Israeli military prepares to launch a ground invasion of Gaza.
Israel’s military and politicians have openly declared the objective of the operation is to “crush” Hamas in revenge for the terrorist atrocities which left 1,400 civilians and soldiers dead earlier this month.
Besides Hamas however, armed Palestinians are active in an array of factions which differ greatly in ideology, size, and capability.
From young upstart TikTokers to Marxist hijackers here is a look at some of the Palestinian militant groups that Hamas could call on to join the upcoming battle with the Israel Defence Force.
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Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Also known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Islamist groups shares a similar ideology to Hamas.
PIJ emerged in the early 1980s in the Gaza Strip with the group’s early leaders heavily inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, and the European Union, PIJ has been involved in numerous violent attacks on Israel, including suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
PIJ is considered to have strong ties with Iran with some regional analysts going as fire as naming the organisation a proxy of Tehran.
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Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was established in 1967 as a Marxist-Leninist offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)
The PFLP has been involved in a range of violent crimes, including hijackings and bombings, throughout its history
The hijacking of an El Al Flight in 1968 was one of the most infamous hijackings carried out by the PFLP.
El Al Flight 426 was on a stopover from Athens to Tel Aviv when four members of the PFLP took over the plane, after a stand-off and intense negotiation with the Israeli government the passengers onboard were released unharmed.
The Lions’ Den
The Lions’ Den is one of the youngest Palestinian armed groups having first emerged in August 2022.
Operating from a stronghold within Nablus’ Old City in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, The Lions Den is believed to be made up of disillusioned younger members of the leading faction in the West Bank Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority.
Though only believed to have a few hundred active members the group is far more aggressive than Fatah in dealings with Israeli security forces, rioting and launching attacks on any patrols that enter the Old City.
The group is known to have a large following among Palestinian youth in the West Bank with Lions’ Den videos regularly uploaded onto onto TikTok and Telegram.
That said, coordination between the Palestinian factions in the event of an Israeli invasion of Gaza is not a foregone conclusion.
With groups like The Lion’s Den isolated in the West Bank, the group is not in a position to directly support Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas is also known to favour secrecy – keeping the planning of the October 7 attacks to only a small circle of key commanders.
This means that groups in Gaza such as the PFLP and PIJ may not be privy to Hamas’ grand strategy for defending Gaza nor any weapons or supplies the group may have secreted away underground.
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