Foundation and early operations Immediately after its creation at the 1964 Arab League summit in Alexandria, the PLO (then headed by
Ahmad Shukeiri) was effectively under the control of the
Arab states, especially
Nasser's
Egypt. The
Palestinians would not gain independent control of the organization until
Yasser Arafat's
Fatah faction wrested it from Nasser-backed Palestinians in 1968–69. Accordingly, the PLA was officially set up in 1964 as the PLO's armed wing despite lacking an actual operation link to the PLO. In reality, the PLA was created by Nasser as an "auxiliary formation". It was staffed by Palestinian
refugees under the control of the host countries, who would perform their
military service in these units instead of in their host countries' regular armed forces. Formally, the PLA fell under the command of the PLO's Military Department, but in practice, none of the governments involved relinquished control of the brigades. From an early point, the PLA became especially influenced by Syria. The PLA was originally organized into three
brigades, named after historic battles: •
Ayn Jalut, based in
Gaza, then administered by
Egypt •
Qadisiyyah, originally based in
Iraq, but transferred to
Jordan in 1967; it passed under Syrian control in 1971 •
Hattin, based in Syria President
Amin al-Hafiz with army officers at the PLA parade, 1966 The PLA was relatively well equipped and trained, and even fielded armour. Its
materiel mostly originated in the
Soviet Union. However, the three PLA brigades remained under-strength until the 1980s. The PLA was never deployed in the form of a single fighting unit for the PLO, but instead elements were utilized as an
auxiliary and support force by its controller governments. PLA brigades fought in the
Six-Day War of 1967 as part of the Egyptian and Syrian militaries. In 1968, the Popular Liberation Forces (
Arabic: ''quwwat at-tahrir ash-sha'biyya''), better known as the "Yarmouk Brigade", were established within the framework of the PLA to perform
commando actions against Israeli forces in the
Gaza Strip, occupied by Israeli forces the year before. Generally the PLA refrained from this kind of underground action, having been built up as something of a conventional military parade showpiece complete with
bands and
guards of honor.
Black September, Yom Kippur War, and Lebanese Civil War After its foundation, the PLA came to be used as political cover by its host governments, especially Syria. In course of the
Black September of 1970, hastily repainted
Syrian Army tanks under the command of the PLA were sent into Jordan to aid the Palestinian
guerrillas against the
Jordanian Armed Forces, probably with the ultimate aim to overthrow the Jordanian
monarchy. Although the initial invasion was successful, with PLA forces capturing
Irbid and declaring it a "liberated" city, the Jordanian military eventually managed to stall the attack in course of heavy fighting. After international pressure, and threats of intervention from both Israel and the United States, the combined PLA-Syrian forces were forced to turn back; an embarrassment which would contribute greatly to the overthrow of the government of
Salah Jadid by
Hafez al-Assad. The failure of the invasion has also attributed to the fact that the
Syrian Air Force under al-Assad had refused to enter the fighting in the first place. PLA units saw action during the
Yom Kippur War in 1973, fighting both at the Syrian and Egyptian fronts. From 1973, the PLA effectively became part of the Syrian Army. During the
Lebanese Civil War, Syria likewise made extensive use of the PLA as a
proxy force, including against the PLO (the PLA however proved unreliable when ordered to fight other Palestinians, and suffered from mass defections). In this conflict, it acted alongside the
as-Sa'iqa faction of the PLO to support Syrian interests. Already deployed from 1975 in Lebanon, the PLA acted as cover for the Syrian Armed Forces during the start of the
Syrian occupation of Lebanon in 1976, as invading Syrian soldiers were dressed in PLA uniforms. The PLA and as-Sa'iqa offered protection during the
1976 Lebanese presidential election, helping
Élias Sarkis in getting elected as
President of Lebanon. Overall, the PLA proved to be relatively ineffective in Lebanon. The PLA was largely destroyed as a fighting force during the 1982 Israeli invasion of southern
Lebanon that started the
1982 Lebanon War. Its fighters in Lebanon left for
Tunis when the PLO evacuated
Beirut that year, in a US-sponsored
cease fire agreement. The Egyptian PLA was also deployed in Lebanon in 1976, after Palestinian leader
Yassir Arafat had approached the Egyptian
president Anwar Sadat, to mend relations damaged by Sadat's peacemaking attempts with Israel. Still, the Egyptian units never proved as important as the fully deployed Syrian PLA. In 1991, the first commander-in-chief of the PLA Maj. Gen.
Wajih Al Madani died. Many PLA soldiers in Egypt and Jordan later became the core of the
Palestinian Authority's (PNA)
National Guard, after the signing of the 1993
Oslo Accords, when they were allowed to enter the
Palestinian Territories to take up positions in the PNA security services.
Syrian Civil War The Syrian PLA remains active, closely coordinated with as-Sa'iqa, although the importance of both had diminished over the years. The PLA has been rebuilt and Palestinians in Syria are still drafted to perform their military service in its ranks. Though completely staffed by Palestinians, it remains outside of the PLO's control, and is in effect integrated into the Syrian Army. Nevertheless, it poses as an independent entity, and occasionally organizes pro-government rallies celebrating Syrian commitment to the Palestinian cause. With the outbreak of the
Syrian Civil War, the PLA sided with the government and began to fight against the
Syrian opposition. Led by Major General
Muhammad Tariq al-Khadra, Around 228 PLA fighters have been killed in action by September 2017; died in Damascus due to
COVID-19. After the
fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, the
Syrian transitional government demanded that all Palestinian armed groups in Syria disarm themselves, dissolve their military formations, and instead focus on political and charitable work. Meanwhile, the PLA and other Palestinian armed factions met at the Damascus headquarters of the PLO where they expressed support for Syrian unity and the removal of Assad as well as condemned the
2024 Israeli invasion of Syria. By late January 2025, the Syrian transitional government had abolished the compulsory conscription for Syrian Palestinians into the PLA and begun to reorganize the entire Syrian military.
General Intelligence Service director Majed Faraj of the
Palestinian Authority indicated that the PLA would be dissolved into the reorganized Syrian army. == Operations ==