The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a lesser-known terrorist organization working in coordination with Hamas, has been blamed for a deadly attack on a hospital in Gaza City.
Hamas had claimed that an Israeli airstrike killed more than 500 people, including civilians seeking treatment, at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.
But Israeli officials refuted the claim, and demonstrated that the blast at the hospital was caused by a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The attack marked the deadliest escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas since the terrorist group launched its surprise attack on October 7.
Here is what we know about the Islamic Jihad and its ties to Hamas:
In a news conference on Tuesday, Israeli officials used surveillance pictures and audio recordings to prove the blast at the hospital was caused by a misfired rocket the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had intended for Tel Aviv.
“An enemy rocket barrage was carried out towards Israel, which passed in the vicinity of the hospital, when it was hit,” IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a statement.
“According to intelligence information, from several sources we have, the GAP organization is responsible for the failed shooting that hit the hospital.”
President Biden agreed with that assertion in televised remarks Wednesday, saying: “Based on the information we’ve seen to date, it appears as a result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.
“The United States unequivocally stands for the protection of civilian life during conflict,” he added.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is the second-largest armed group in Gaza, with around 1,000 active members, according to the U.S, Director of National Intelligence.
Its goal is to establish an Islamist Palestinian state and destroy the state of Israel, according to Fox News.
The group was founded in 1979 in the Gaza Strip to fight Israeli occupation, and continues to maintain a presence in both Gaza and the West Bank.
It is now led by Sec. Gen. Ziya al-Nakhalah, whom the United States Department of State classifies as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The PIJ and Hamas are considered the two most important members of the joint operations room, which coordinates most military activity among armed groups in the Gaza Strip, according to the New York Times.
But the PIJ often works independently from Hamas, and is more focused on military confrontations — and has rejected peace talks with the Jewish state
Its military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, has been responsible for many of the attacks on Israel over the past few years.
Israel and the United States consider both organizations to be terrorist groups.
Aside from being blamed for the attack on the Gaza City hospital, al-Nakhalah has taken responsibility for holding captive more than 30 of the hostages Hamas took when it launched its surprise attack on Israel earlier this month.
The al-Quds Brigade also claimed responsibility for an attack on the Lebanon-Israel border on Monday, Al Arabiya reports.
In a statement, al-Quds Brigade spokesman said: “We are part of this battle and our fighters are shoulder to shoulder alongside their brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades until victory, God willing.”
The PIJ, like Hamas, receives support from Iran, Syria and Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, Fox reports.
Iran, in particular, has provided rockets and drones to the terrorist organization, which got much of its inspiration from the Iranian revolution — seeing it as a movement to be modeled across the Arab world.
In that fashion, the PIJ adopted the suicide techniques used by Islamists in Iran in 1979.
PIJ’s founder, Fathi Shaqaqi, even shared the belief of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini that “Islam was the solution and jihad was the proper means.”
Shaqaqi’s successor, Ramadan Abdallah Shallah, has also held meetings with Iranian officials in Tehran and Damascus.
Israeli officials now believe Iran is orchestrating the terrorist group’s attacks.
“Iran is trying for years, especially in the last few months, to have a terror organization — both the Islamic Jihad that is fully supported and financed by Iran and [the] Hamas terror organization that is also financed, but not fully, by Iran,” Lior Harat, a spokesman for Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Fox News.
“They are calling them to attack Israel and Israelis,” he claimed.
“Those terror organizations are working as proxies of the ayatollah regime.”