The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades are the armed wing of the socialist and Palestinian nationalist Fatah political party of the Palestinian Authority. They were founded in 2000 by Yasser Arafat, and are considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, the United States, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.
History[]
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades soldiers at a press conference
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were created in 2000 as the armed wing of Fatah, although Fatah initially claimed to have never made a decision to create them nor to make them their military wing. However, Fatah party leader Yasser Arafat was their leader at first, and Arafat sent $50,000 a year to them. In 2004, Prime Minister of Palestine Ahmed Qurei declared that the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades would not be dissolved, and said that Palestine was committed to them and Fatah claimed full responsibility for their actions.
Fatah troops at a press conference
In 2002, they carried out their first terrorist attack when they killed 6 and wounded 33 at a bat mitzvah celebration in Hadera, Israel. They proceeded to carry out several suicide bombings, and killed the Mayor of Nablus in February 2004 after the mayor resigned due to the control that armed thugs had over the city. They were also responsible for attacking journalists in West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and they carried out joint attacks with the Popular Resistance Committees, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah.
During the Second Intifada, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades were one of the largest groups fighting the Israelis, and their leader Naif Abu-Sharah was assassinated in 2004, while their Nablus Tanzim commander Fadi Kafisha was also killed in 2006, the year after the intifada ended.