Battle of Rafah (2009) | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Salafi jihadist insurgency in the Gaza Strip | |||||||||
Location of Rafah in the Gaza Strip | |||||||||
| |||||||||
Belligerents | |||||||||
Islamic Emirate of Rafah | Hamas | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Abdel Latif Moussa † Abu Abdullah al-Suri † | Khaled Mashal Ismail Haniyeh Abu Jibril Shimali † | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
Jund Ansar Allah | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
100+ militants | Unknown | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
15 militants killed 40 militants arrested | 6 police officers killed [1] | ||||||||
5 Palestinian civilians killed 150 Palestinian civilians wounded[ citation needed ] |
The Battle of Rafah (2009) took place between Hamas and Jund Ansar Allah in the Rafah Governorate of the Gaza Strip. [2] Fighting between the two Palestinian militant organizations broke out on 14 August 2009, when Jund Ansar Allah's founder Abdel Latif Moussa denounced the Hamas government for supposedly failing to enforce Islamic law and for "not being any different from a secular government" since it ousted Fatah during the Battle of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. He subsequently proclaimed the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Rafah and swore allegiance to al-Qaeda. In total, 26 people were killed and 150 were wounded during the conflict, including an 11-year-old Palestinian girl. [3] Moussa was killed in Rafah on 15 August 2009, triggering the collapse of Jund Ansar Allah and the Islamic Emirate of Rafah.
A day before the Hamas raid, Jund Ansar Allah leader, Abdel Latif Moussa, declared the Islamic Emirate of Rafah, and swore allegiance to Al-Qaeda. About 100 of his fighters were seen in a video where he pledged allegiance in his base, a mosque in Rafah.[ citation needed ] The next day, the Qassam Brigades attacked the mosque and other bases of the group in Rafah. The fighting lasted 7 hours. It was reported that when Hamas reached the positions of Moussa and Jund Ansar Allah's military commander, Abu Abdullah al Suri, they detonated themselves.[ ambiguous ] About 15 Jund Ansar Allah fighters were killed, 40 were captured, 5 civilians were killed. Al-Qassam brigades commander Abu Jibril Shimali, was also killed during the battle. The group was virtually destroyed after the fighting, having both of its leaders killed, and its bases captured. It was reported that Hamas later released some of the captured. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2004.
This page is a partial listing of incidents of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2005.
Al-Qassam Brigades, also known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, is the military wing of the Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist organization Hamas. Led by Mohammed Deif until his presumed death on 13 July 2024, the Al-Qassam Brigades is the largest and best-equipped militia operating within the Gaza Strip in recent years.
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence or terrorism committed by Palestinians with the intent to accomplish political goals, and often carried out in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Common objectives of political violence by Palestinian groups include self-determination in and sovereignty over all of the region of Palestine, or the recognition of a Palestinian state inside the 1967 borders. This includes the objective of ending the Israeli occupation. More limited goals include the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and recognition of the Palestinian right of return.
Army of Islam, officially The Army of Islam Group in Jerusalem, is a Salafi Jihadist militant organization in the Gaza Strip. It was founded by the Doghmush clan in 2006, and is based in the Tzabra neighborhood in the center of the Gaza Strip. The group has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the UAE.
Nizar Rayan was a high-ranking Hamas leader who served as a liaison between the Palestinian organization's political leadership and its military wing. Also a professor of Islamic law, he became a top Islamic cleric within Hamas after the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 2004. Rayan was a strong promoter between 1994 and 2004 of suicide bombings on Israel, and his son killed himself on one such mission. Rayan and most of his family were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the Gaza War.
Jund Ansar Allah was an armed Palestinian Salafi-jihadist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. It was founded in November 2008 by Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa. On 14 August 2009, Moussa announced the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The group criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law. In response, Hamas attacked the organization, resulting in 24 people killed and a further 150 wounded. After the battle, Jund Ansar Allah ceased to exist.
Abdel Latif Moussa, also known as Abu Noor al-Maqdisi, was the leader of the Salafist Jihadist group Jund Ansar Allah, an Islamist group in Rafah, Gaza Strip. On 14 August 2009, he proclaimed the Islamic Emirate of Rafah in the Palestinian Territories and was killed the following day 15 August, when Hamas forces stormed his headquarters and residence.
Jaljalat is an armed Sunni Islamist group operating in the Gaza Strip taking inspiration from al-Qaeda. In September 2009, the organization revealed it had attempted to assassinate former US president Jimmy Carter and Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair.
Islamism in the Gaza Strip involves efforts to promote and impose Islamic laws and traditions in the Gaza Strip, both by the ruling Hamas government and other Islamist anti-Hamas groups in the region. The influence of Islamic groups in the Gaza Strip has grown since the 1980s. Following Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and a conflict with supporters of the rival Fatah party, Hamas took complete control of the Gaza Strip, and declared the "end of secularism and heresy in the Gaza Strip". For the first time since the Sudanese coup of 1989 that brought Omar al-Bashir to power, a Muslim Brotherhood group rules a significant geographic territory. Gaza human-rights groups accuse Hamas of restricting many freedoms.
Events in the year 2009 in the Palestinian territories.
Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin was a Sunni Islamist Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip and the Sinai peninsula. The establishment of the group was publicly announced on 6 November 2008, with communiqués vowing loyalty to al-Qaeda, after having "received the messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri." Various forms of the "Tawhid al-Jihad" label have appeared in relation to developments in the Gaza Strip. The size of the group is not publicly known. The group have no reported attack since 2012 and is considered as defunct.
The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem or simply the Mujahideen Shura Council was an armed Palestinian Salafi jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda that is active in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and in the Gaza Strip. The group was formed in 2011 or 2012 by Salafist Islamist Hisham Al-Saedni to coordinate the activities of the Salafi jihadist groups operating in Gaza even before the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and has carried out attacks against civilians in Israel. The group describes violence against Jews as a religious obligation that brings its perpetrators closer to God. Al-Saedni, who was the leader of the group and also of Jahafil Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad fi Filastin, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on 14 October 2012. The group is subordinated with Al-Qaeda in Sinai Peninsula as of August 2012.
Jund al-Aqsa, later known as Liwa al-Aqsa after 7 February 2017, was a Salafist jihadist organization that was active during the Syrian Civil War. Formerly known as Sarayat al-Quds, the group was founded by Abu Abdul 'Aziz al-Qatari as a subunit within the al-Nusra Front. The group later became independent, because al-Nusra was growing too rapidly for its resources and had suffered from fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 20 September 2016 the U.S. Department of State designated Jund al-Aqsa as a terrorist organization. The group rejoined al-Nusra Front, by then renamed Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (JFS), in October 2016. However, on 23 January 2017, JFS declared that Jund Al-Aqsa was no longer part of Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham. In early February 2017, some of Jund al-Aqsa's units joined the newly formed Tahrir al-Sham, while the others refused and formed a new splinter group called Liwa al-Aqsa, and captured many towns in northern Hama and southern Idlib from other rebel groups. Following these attacks, Tahrir al-Sham launched a military operation against Liwa al-Aqsa, accusing them of being an ISIL affiliate. Following intense clashes with Tahrir al-Sham, up to 2,100 Liwa al-Aqsa militants left Idlib Province to join ISIL in Raqqa Province, by 22 February 2017.
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The Islamic Emirate of Rafah was a short-lived unrecognized Islamic state located in Rafah. It was founded by Jund Ansar Allah when they declared independence in 2009, two years after the Hamas takeover of Gaza. It collapsed after the 2009 Battle of Rafah.
A number of Islamist groups opposed to Hamas have had a presence in the Gaza Strip, a part of the Palestinian territories. These groups began appearing in the Gaza Strip in the months leading up to and following the Israeli disengagement from the region in 2005 and have maintained a presence even after the 2007 Battle of Gaza, when Hamas wrestled control of the Gaza Strip from its rival Fatah, establishing its own de facto government in the area.
Palestinian suicide attacks, also known as Palestinian suicide bombings, involve the use of suicide bombings by Palestinian groups in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, predominantly targeting Israeli civilians. This tactic is also referred to as Palestinian suicide terrorism. It emerged in the 1990s and reached its peak during the Second Intifada (2000–2005). Attacks occurred at various locations, including shopping centers, public buses, transit stations, cafes, nightclubs, and restaurants, According to a 2006 study from the University of Haifa, only a few of the bombings targeted military objectives. Between 1994 and 2005, suicide bombings killed 735 Israelis and wounded 4,554.
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