Islamic Jihad celebrates its 33rd anniversary in Gaza

In a big rally and under a sea of black flags, Palestinians from all walks of life came out to take part in the Islamic Jihad’s 33^rd anniversary celebration.

Since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in December 1987, Palestine's Islamic movement has sought to utilize the concept and technique of jihad. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have done this in the political context of a mass civilian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Since the uprising the abuse of religious rights by the occupying forces has intensified and furthered the call to jihad made by the Palestinian Islamic movement.

The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine refuses to recognize the Zionist regime and is against the so-called two state solution demanding the liberation of the entire historic land of Palestine.

The Islamic Jihad was founded by the late Fathi Shaqaqi who was inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the teachings of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini(RH).

Fathi Shaqaqi (1981–1995) was martyred on 26 October 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta by a hit team composed of two Mossad agents. The assassination happened when he was on his way back from Tripoli after visiting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Islamic Jihad sources in Gaza confirmed that Shaqaqi had been traveling from Libya to his home in Damascus and made a stopover in Malta.

The Islamic Jihad movement is highly respected by all Palestinian factions and has always been a uniting factor among them.A professor of economics at the University of Gaza, Ramazan Abdullah Shallah was one of the founders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

He led the movement for more than 20 years, after its founder, Fathi Shaghaghi, was assassinated in Malta in 1995 in an attack widely attributed to the Zionist regime.