Additional Information on the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades
* Among the more noteworthy acts of terrorism the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades (AAMB) have perpetrated in recent years are the following:
- January 2008: AAMB joins with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) to shoot rockets into Israel from Gaza. This leads Israel to respond by blockading the Gaza Strip in an effort to secure itself against further terrorism and Gaza’s importation of deadly weaponry.
- January 2007: Both AAMB and PIJ claim responsibility for a suicide bombing in Eilat that killed three people.
- June 2006: AAMB members kidnap an American college student after mistaking him for an Israeli. Initially the terrorists threaten to kill the captive unless Israel agrees to release all of its Palestinian prisoners, but they release him that same day when they learn that he is not an Israeli.
- January 2006: Masked gunmen overtake a European Union mission in Gaza for a half hour, demanding that the governments of Denmark and Norway apologize for their respective media outlets that had recently chosen to publish (and then reprint) a series of cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammed. No shots are fired in the incident, and there are no injuries.
- October 2005: A suicide attack at the Gush Etzion junction kills three Israelis and wounds three others.
- March 2004: AAMB and Hamas both claim responsibility for a suicide bombing at a checkpoint at the Port of Ashdod that killed ten people.
- January 2004: An attack on a bus in Rehavia, Jerusalem kills 11 people
- January 5, 2003: Two suicide bombings in downtown Tel Aviv kill 23 people and injure approximately 100 more.
- November 2002: A shooting spree at a kibbutz in northern Israel kills five Israelis, including two children, and wounds seven more.
- April 2002: A suicide bombing at a Jerusalem marketplace kills six people and injures 104.
- March 2002: A suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills three Israelis, prompting Israel to call off ceasefire talks with Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
- March 9, 2002: A suicide bombing in a Jerusalem café kills 11 Israelis and wounds more than 50.
- March 2002: A sniper attack on an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank kills 10 Israelis, including 7 soldiers.
- January 2002: A female terrorist carries out a suicide attack in Jerusalem that kills an elderly man and wounds approximately 40 people.
* The AAMB’s organizational logo features a picture of the Al-Aqsa Mosque along with two black rifles, a grenade, two elongated Palestinian flags wrapped around the entire image, and a Koranic inscription that says: “Fight, Allah will punish them by your hand, he will smother them in humiliation, and help you rise above them, and heal the bosom of believers.”