The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades are the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Founded in 1967 as the Red Eagles Brigades, they were renamed in 2001 after the death of PFLP Secretary-General Abu Ali Mustafa in the First Intifada.
History[]
PFLP troops in Nablus during the Second Intifada
Their namesake Abu Ali Mustafa was the Secretary-General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from 2000 to 2001, when he was assassinated by Israel during the Second Intifada. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades were originally known as the Red Eagles Brigades after their creation in 1967, but they were renamed to honor their fallen leader Abu Ali Mustafa.
Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades soldiers
The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades' first major attack was the assassination of Itamar Local Council leader Meir Lixenberg in the West Bank on 27 August 2001, and on 17 October they assassinated Minister for Tourism Rehavam Zeevi. On 16 February 2002 they launched a suicide bombing on a Karnei Shomron pizzeria and another bombing in Ariel on 7 March. A 19 May 2002 suicide bombing on Netanya Market that killed 3 people was claimed by both the PFLP and Hamas. On 25 December 2003 4 Israelis were killed in a suicide bombing on the Geha Junction in Petah Tikva, followed by a failed bombing on 22 May 2004 in Bikat Hayerden, a bombing in the Carmel Market of Tel Aviv on 1 November 2004 that killed 3 Israelis, and the killing of 4 and wounding of 8 Israelis at a synagogue in West Jerusalem on 18 November 2014.
The Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, made up of secularist Marxist-Leninist Palestinian nationalists, refused to relinquish its weapons to the Palestinian Authority as per Mahmoud Abbas' demands on 16 July 2007. Although Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades armed wing mainly complied, the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades stated that they would not cease their resistance until the Israelis gave up their control of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.