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The Popular Resistance Committees: Hamas' New Partners?

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs) Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi - * Said Sayyam, the Palestinian interior minister in the Hamas government, has appointed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, Jamal Abu Samhadana, to be in charge of building the core of a new Palestinian army. Formally, he will be under the overall supervision of the Interior Ministry. * The Popular Resistance Committees is a terror organization that has carried out hundreds of attacks against Israeli targets in the Gaza Strip and within Israel, and was apparently responsible for the roadside bomb attack in which three American security guards were killed in Gaza in October 2003. * The PRC, which espouses an extreme Islamic worldview, has formed a strategic alliance with Hamas and Hizballah, which help finance its activities and train its operatives. According to Israeli intelligence, the PRC also maintains contact with al-Qaeda, which over the past year has created a presence in Gaza and the West Bank. * Israel is acting militarily against the PRC as it does toward other Palestinian terror organizations. At the same time, the PRC is not included in Israel's official list of terror organizations. This may stem from the mistaken assumption that the PRC is part of the military wing of Fatah. The U.S. and EU also did not include the PRC in their blacklist of terror organizations.
2006-04-17 00:00:00
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