The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) (Arabic: لجان المقاومة الشعبية, Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya) are a coalition of various armed Palestinian factions that oppose the conciliatory approach adopted by the Palestinian Authority and Fatah towards Israel. Active in the Gaza Strip, the military wing of the PRC is the al-Naser Salah ad-Din Brigades.[1]
Set up in late 2000 by former Fatah and Tanzim member Jamal Abu Samhadana, the PRC are composed primarily of ex-Fatah fighters and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members and are alleged by Israel to be inspired and financed by Hezbollah. The PRC specializes in planting roadside bombs and vehicle explosive charges - directed against military and civilian convoys in the Gaza Strip. The PRC is described as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States.
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The PRC have been involved in a number of bombing attacks on both military and civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, including the following:
In addition, the Palestinian National Authority arrested several PRC members, accusing them of being responsible for planting the explosives which, on October 15, 2003, destroyed a US diplomatic convoy at Beit Hanoun, killing three security guards and severely wounding a diplomat.[6] The PRC confirmed the men were PRC members, and initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but later denied carrying out the attack, saying it was against Palestinian interests. Following the attack, the US demanded that the Palestinian Authority find those responsible and bring them to justice. Palestinian officials said that because of lack of progress in the attack investigation, the US halted financial support for the PA and placed unofficial sanctions on its accounts. After heavy US pressure, the PA tried four "suspects" in a Palestinian military court, but intelligence agencies dismissed the tribunal as a "mock trial" and said while the suspects were PRC activists, they were not those responsible for the attack. The men were released in March 2004, less than one year after the attack.
The PRC are also involved in Rafah's smuggling tunnels [7] which have been used to smuggle weapons, explosives, fugitives and civilian supplies etc.[8][9][10][11]
The PRC claimed responsibility for the assassination of Moussa Arafat on September 7, 2005.
In early June 2006, PRC leader Jamal Abu Samhadana was killed by IDF forces. As the man considered responsible for a number of attacks, including the bombing of a children's school bus near Kfar Darom in November 2000 and for the 2003 infiltration into an IDF outpost in Rafah that left several soldiers dead, he was considered one of the most wanted Palestinians on the IDF's hit-list.[12]
On Sunday, June 25, 2006, PRC, together with Hamas and Jish al-Islam ("the Army of Islam") launched a major attack via tunnel near the Kerem Shalom outpost. Eight Palestinian fighters used a nearly one km tunnel that they had dug over the past several months to cross the border between Gaza and Israel. The unexpected attack ended with one soldier- Corporal Gilad Shalit- captured, two dead and four wounded. Two of the Palestinian attackers were killed while the other six made it back to the Gaza Strip with Shalit.[13]
The same day of the tunnel attack, Eliyahu Asheri, an 18 year old Israeli student, went missing near the West Bank. The PRC shortly claimed responsibility for kidnapping and murdering him. Spokesman for the group, Abu Abir, also announced that the PRC had formed special units in the West Bank whose sole purpose is to kidnap soldiers and settlers, in accordance with the continued Operation "Cavaliers' Wrath." [12][14][15]
On August 8, 2007, the PRC announced that it would form a political party to run in future Palestinian elections. It vowed, however, to keep its armed wing intact.[16]
In August 18, 2011, Israel accused the PRC in committing the 2011 southern Israel attacks in which 8 Israelies were killed in firing and suicide bombing on two buses and a car near the Israeli-Egyptian border north to Eilat. On the evening of the same day, the Israeli Air Force, working with Shin Bet,[17] bombed the homes of The Popular Resistance Committees' members in Rafah. Among the dead as identified by the group were their commander, Kamal al-Nairab and their military chief, Immad Hammad,[18] and at least two more top members of the group and another member.[17] The airstrike occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, close to the Egyptian border.[19][20] The PRC responded to the raids in saying that it vows "double" revenge for the attack.[17]
According to Israel, the relation between the PRC and Hezbollah is more than coincidental. Israel alleges the organization enjoys financing and technical support from Hezbollah since its founding, and is a sort of proxy of Hezbollah's influence in the Gaza Strip.[21][22] The organization outwardly projects this relation through its mimicry of the Hezbollah flag which also bears a fist clenching a Kalashnikov rifle and stylized writing.