Recent attacks thrust Islamic Jihad back into the headlines

Rescue workers at the scene where a car exploded on Thursday in downtown Jerusalem, near the Mahane Yehuda market, killing two Israelis

(CNN) -- With Thursday's deadly car bombing in Jerusalem, the once-ailing Palestinian Islamic Jihad made a new bid to reassert itself as a formidable foe of peace with Israel.

Based all over the Middle East, the Islamic Jihad is an Islamic fundamentalist movement with four main Palestinian factions. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad calls for the destruction of Israel, with the goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state.

The group's influence waned in recent years, but in the past week it has claimed responsibility for two attacks: the October 26 bicycle bombing, which killed the bomber and injured an Israeli soldier, and Thursday's car bomb in downtown Jerusalem, which killed two Israelis.

Founded in 1979 by Palestinian students in Egypt, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was heavily influenced by both the Islamic revolution in Iran and the militancy of Egypt's Islamic student organizations.

VIDEO CNN's Jerrold Kessel reports on the bombing and its aftermath (November 2) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Some of those students were expelled from Egypt in wake of the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. They returned to Gaza and began actions as an Islamic Jihad organization.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Israel: a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall in March 1996 which killed 20 and injured 75 others; a January 1995 suicide bombing in Gaza that killed 21; and the April 1995 bombing in which two Palestinian suicide attackers killed seven Israeli soldiers and a U.S. Jewish student in Gaza.

According to Jane's Foreign Report, the group's success in attacking Israelis made it a target. Agents of Israel's Mossad were widely suspected of having been involved in the assassination of several Jihad leaders.

Notably, the strength of the Bassam Sultan faction, headed by Abu Jihad, was severely hampered when three of its main leaders were killed in 1988, and one leader of the Shikaki-Ouda faction, Fathi Shikaki, was killed in 1995 in Malta. According to Jane's, the other leader, Abd Elazis Ouda, operates from Lebanon in cooperation with Hezbollah, a Lebanese guerrilla movement and political party.

Supported by Iran, the Beit Almaquds faction is a highly organized element, according to Jane's Foreign Report. Its spiritual leader is Sheikh Asad Biud Altmimi, who is exiled from Hebron. Based in Sudan, the fourth wing is the Amer faction, headed by Omar Jaber Amar.

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Islamic Jihad blamed for Jerusalem car bombing
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Jane's Online
International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism
  •  Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
  •  The Islamic Jihad: the Imperative of Holy War
United States Embassy
  •  Background Information on Terrorist Groups

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