FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS
Army of Islam (Jaysh al-Islam)
( AS OF SEPTEMBER 2022 )
OVERVIEW
Army of Islam is a Palestinian Sunni militant group that a breakaway faction of HAMAS formed in 2005. The group is aligned with al-Qa‘ida’s global jihad ideology. It seeks to separate the Gaza Strip and the West Bank from Israel and create an Islamic emirate—first in the Gaza Strip and, eventually, in the region. In September 2015, ISIS claimed that the Army of Islam had pledged allegiance to ISIS and declared itself as part of the Islamic State’s Sinai Province—claims that Army of Islam denied.
OPERATING AREAS
Gaza Strip, Egypt, Israel
MEMBERS
A few hundred fighters
TACTICS AND TARGETS
Army of Islam targets the Egyptian and Israeli governments and their citizens using bombs, IEDs, machineguns, mortars, rockets, and small arms. The group also conducts kidnapping operations.
FOREIGN TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated Army of Islam as a foreign terrorist organization in May 2011 and its leader, Mumtaz Dughmush, in August 2011.
KEY LEADERS
Mumtaz Dughmush
Group founder and leader; in 2000, helped form the Popular Resistance Committees—a loose coalition of armed factions in the Gaza Strip
NOTABLE ATTACKS
1 January 2011
Alexandria, Egypt
Operatives bomb a Coptic Christian church, killing 25 and wounding 100.
14 August 2006
Gaza Strip
Members kidnap two journalists—an American and a New Zealander—and release them 13 days later.
25 June 2006
Gaza Strip
Army of Islam collaborates with HAMAS and the Popular Resistance Committees to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.