What Is Islamic Jihad, the Group Israel Accused of Striking Gaza Hospital?
Islamic Jihad militants in a military parade in Gaza City on Oct. 4.
Photographer: Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty ImagesA bombing at a Gaza hospital Oct. 18 that Palestinian officials say killed hundreds of people has focused attention on a Palestinian militant group that’s not Hamas. Palestinian officials say the Israeli military struck the hospital. Israeli authorities, backed by US President Joe Biden, say they have evidence the devastation was caused by an errant rocket fired by the group Islamic Jihad.
Like Hamas, which provoked the latest war by attacking southern Israel on Oct. 7, Islamic Jihad is an Islamist group dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state. Both groups are designated terrorist organizations by the US and by the European Union. Islamic Jihad was founded in Gaza in 1981, six years before Hamas was established. Both are offshoots of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Though Islamic Jihad is a Sunni group, as is Hamas, it drew inspiration from the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Shiite-majority Iran, which provides both groups funding and arms.