Al-Quds Brigades was founded in 1981 by
Fathi Shaqaqi and
Abd Al Aziz Awda in Gaza, On 30 August 2006, the AQB West Bank leader,
Hussam Jaradat, was shot and killed by undercover IDF in Jenin on 30 August 2006. In the Gaza Strip, al-Quds Brigades continued its militant activities, including the indiscriminate firing of
al-Quds rocket attacks out of populated civilian areas. Al-Quds Brigades promotes the military destruction of Israel, including the indiscriminate firing of rocket, mortar fire and suicide bombings.
Baha Abu al-Ata, the head of AQB in the Gaza Strip, was killed in a targeted killing in Gaza City on 12 November 2019, allegedly after having given orders for the launching of rockets into Israel. At the same time, Syrian media reported that another senior PIJ commander,
Akram al-Ajouri, survived an airstrike in Damascus, but his son and daughter were killed. The next day, AQB launched more than 220 rockets into southern and central Israel, and on the next day the IDF struck several PIJ targets in the Gaza Strip killing two Palestinians, identified as 38-year-old Khaled Moawad Faraj, AQB's field commander, and 32-year-old Alaa Ashtyawu. Later that day, three more AQB members were killed in an
Israeli Air Force airstrike while attempting to launch rockets into Israel. A ceasefire was agreed for 14 November, by which time AQB had launched over 400 rockets into Israel and a total of 36 Palestinians had been killed, including 25 members of PIJ or other factions in the Strip. This time, Hamas made no effort to stand with or assist PIJ. Jihad Shaker al-Ghannam (secretary of the al-Quds Brigades' Military Council), Khalil Salah al-Bahtini (commander of its Northern Region), and Tariq Ibrahim Ezzedine (one of the heads of military action) were killed by an Israeli airstrike in May 2023. The AQB has participated in the ongoing
Gaza war, fighting alongside Hamas'
Al-Qassam Brigades and other
allied Palestinian factions. == Organization ==