The PRC was formed in late 2000 by former Fatah and Tanzim member Jamal Abu Samhadana, and is composed primarily of ex-Fatah fighters and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades members. On 15 October 2003, explosives destroyed a
US diplomatic convoy at
Beit Hanoun, killing three security guards and severely wounding a diplomat. The PRC initially claimed responsibility for the attack, but later denied carrying out the attack, saying it was against Palestinian interests. The US demanded that the
Palestinian National Authority find those responsible and bring them to justice. Palestinian officials said that because of lack of progress in the attack investigation, the US halted financial support for the PA and placed unofficial sanctions on its accounts. After heavy US pressure, the Palestinian Authority arrested several PRC members, accusing them of being responsible. The PRC confirmed the men were PRC members. The PA tried the four "suspects" in a Palestinian military court, but intelligence agencies dismissed the tribunal as a "mock trial" and said while the suspects were PRC activists, they were not those responsible for the attack. The men were released in March 2004. The Jenin Martyr's Brigade was formed in March 2003 as a part of the PRC. Besides other activities, the JMB claimed responsibility for the
March 2003 bombing of an Israeli bus in Haifa. The bus was blown to pieces when a suicide bomber, seated in the rear of the vehicle, detonated 10-15 kilograms of shrapnel-laced explosives that were attached to his body. 16 people died in the blast, and another 30-40 were injured. On 17 July 2004, the group kidnapped
Palestinian Civil Police Forces Chief
Ghazi al-Jabali at gunpoint in an ambush of his convoy which wounded two bodyguards. Al-Jabali was only released after Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat agreed to PRC demands that he be fired. The PRC are also involved in
Rafah's
smuggling tunnels which have been used to smuggle weapons, explosives, fugitives and civilian supplies etc. The PRC claimed responsibility for the assassination of
Moussa Arafat on 7 September 2005. On 8 June 2006, PRC leader Jamal Abu Samhadana was killed by IDF forces, along with at least three other PRC members. As the man considered responsible for a number of attacks, including the bombing of a children's school bus near Kfar Darom in November 2000 and for the 2003 infiltration into an IDF outpost in Rafah that left several soldiers dead, he was considered one of the most wanted Palestinians on the
IDF's hit-list. On Sunday, 25 June 2006, the PRC, together with Hamas and
Jaish al-Islam ("the Army of Islam"), launched a major attack via a tunnel near the
Kerem Shalom outpost. Eight Palestinian fighters used a nearly one kilometre tunnel that they had dug over the past several months to cross under the border between Gaza and Israel. The surprise attack ended with two Israeli soldiers dead and four wounded and the capture of Corporal
Gilad Shalit. Two of the Palestinian attackers were killed while the other six made it back to the Gaza Strip with Shalit. Shalit was released five years later in a prisoner exchange. The same day of the tunnel attack,
Eliyahu Asheri, an 18-year-old Israeli student, went missing near the
West Bank. The PRC shortly claimed responsibility for kidnapping and murdering him. Spokesman for the group, Abu Abir, also announced that the PRC had formed special units in the West Bank whose sole purpose is to kidnap soldiers and settlers, in accordance with the continued Operation "Cavaliers' Wrath." On 8 August 2007, the PRC announced that it would form a political party to run in future Palestinian elections. It vowed, however, to keep its armed wing intact. In February 2008 then PRC leader
'Amir Qarmoot Abu As-Sa'id was killed in an Israeli airstrike. On 25 August 2007, militants from the PRC and
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attempted to enter the Israeli border town of
Netiv HaAsara from Gaza. The militants used a ladder to scale the
Israel-Gaza border, and two militants were killed by the
Israel Defense Forces. On 18 August 2011, Israel accused the PRC of committing the
2011 southern Israel attacks in which 8 Israelis were killed in firing and
suicide bombing on two buses and a car near the Israeli-Egyptian border north to
Eilat. On the evening of the same day, the
Israeli Air Force, working with
Shin Bet, bombed the homes of PRC members in
Rafah. Among the dead, as identified by the group, were their commander, Kamal al-Nairab and Immad Hammad, chief of its military wing
Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades, and at least two more top members of the group and another member. The PRC responded to the raids in saying that it vows "double" revenge for the attack. In July 2013, Hamas cracked down on PRC activities in Gaza, arresting a number of PRC members. In October 2023, during the ongoing Gaza war, Israel claimed to have killed the head of PRC's armed wing, Rafat Abu Hilal, in an airstrike in
Rafah. ==Activities==