| The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is the striking arm of Yassir Arafat's Fatah organization and one of the driving forces behind the current Palestinian violence. The Brigades were founded by a group of radicals in the Balata refugee section of Nablus—many of them graduates of the first intifada in 1987. The Brigades' infrastructure, funds, leadership, and operatives derive from the Fatah Tanzim in the Judea and Samaria. Its main powerbases are located in Nablus and Ramallah.
To date, the Fatah Tanzim and the Martyrs of al-Aqsa have taken responsibility for hundreds of terror attacks in which Israeli civilians were killed. Israeli authorities say that since September 2000 the Fatah-linked groups have carried out more than 2,000 attacks and attempted attacks, including car bombings, shootings, kidnappings, and knife attacks. The Martyrs of al-Aqsa Brigades were involved in the vast majority of these attacks. |
