Ad Hoc Studies

ISIS has officially announced the death of the organization’s leader and the appointment of a new leader

On November 30, 2022, ISIS’s Al-Furqan Media Foundation published an audiotape of the organization's spokesman, in which he announces the death of Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the organization's leader, and the appointment of Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as the new leader. In the spokesman's statement, no details were provided regarding the identity of the two leaders and the circumstances of the former leader's death. The United States Army Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that Al-Qurashi was killed in mid-October 2022 as part of a military operation conducted by the Free Syrian Army. Al-Qurashi's killing was a blow to the organization, which experienced a particularly difficult year during which it was forced to reduce the scope of its activities. In the ITIC's assessment, in the wake of the leader’s death, ISIS will strive to escalate its attacks but it is possible that due to its weakness, the intensity of the escalation will be less than before. Read more...

Palestinian reactions to the double terrorist attack in Jerusalem (November 23, 2022)

On the morning of November 23, 2022, Palestinians carried out a double terrorist attack in Jerusalem. The attack was unique and more sophisticated than the recent lone wolf and shooting attacks. Considering the nature of the attack and concerned about an Israeli reprisal, the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip raised their level of alert. The official Palestinian media reported the attack as an event, not a terrorist attack. Senior PA figures did not relate to it at all. Read more...

Hostile references by ISIS and Al-Qaeda to the FIFA World Cup games in Qatar

Official media channels of ISIS and Al-Qaeda show a hostile attitude towards the FIFA World Cup games Al-Naba, ISIS’s official weekly, called to act according to the recommendation of the Prophet of Islam Muhammad and to remove the polytheists, Jews, and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula. Al-Qaeda called on Muslims to boycott the event because it promotes obscenity and homosexuality in the Arabian Peninsula and warned Muslims not to watch it, attend it or promote it. Read more...

Incident between Egyptian army forces and ISIS in the Suez Canal region

From the night of November 18, 2022, until the early morning hours of November 19, 2022, there were heavy exchanges of fire between Egyptian army forces and operatives of ISIS’s Sinai Province in the eastern part of the city of Al-Qantara, which is close to the Suez Canal. At least five soldierswere killed, and several others were wounded. It should be noted that the Suez Canal is a strategic region representing an international traffic artery of importance for world trade in general and for the Egyptian economy in particular. Read more...

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have adopted a policy of full solidarity with Palestinians killed while carrying out terrorist attacks against Israel or in confrontations with Israeli security forces

With the increase of terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria in recent months and the intensive counterterrorism activities of the Israeli security forces, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the PA have increased its glorification of the fatalities (primarily operatives of Fatah and the PA security forces) and adopted a policy of full solidarity with their families, including terrorists killed while attacking Israelis and in clashes with Israeli security forces. Senior PA and Fatah figures declare them heroes and have been strongly critical of Israel for killing them. Many of them, including PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh and Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the PLO's Executive Committee and responsible for relations with Israel, customarily visit the mourning tents and offer their condolences to the terrorists' families. The PA and Fatah hold formal military-style funerals which are attended by operatives of the PA security forces and senior PA and Fatah figures; Their objective is apparently to gain the sympathy and support of the Palestinian people and to prove that neither the PA nor Fatah has abandoned the path of "resistance." Read more...

The Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq – the current situation

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 undermined the internal order in the country and brought about, among other things, the establishment of several pro-Iranian militias affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force. The militias were set up with the purpose of driving the US forces out of Iraq and establishing Iranian involvement in the country. Prominent among the militias are Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq (“League of the Righteous”), Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Hezbollah Battalions”), Harakat al-Nujaba (“the Movement of the Noble Ones”), and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (“The Master of Martyrs Brigade”). The militias indeed operated in Iraq over the years against the US-led Global Coalition forces and contributed to the pullout of the forces from Iraq in late 2011. In 2014, they were integrated into the Popular Mobilization Forces (hereinafter: the PMF), which was intended to fight against ISIS, and since then they have become an integral part of the military establishment in Iraq and also integrated into Iraqi politics. The militias continue working to strengthen the Iranian involvement in Iraq and sever Iraq’s ties with the United States. They are also part of the Axis of Resistance, where they also operate outside Iraq, especially in Syria, including the border area with Israel. Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of the PMF and commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions), on January 3, 2020, in a targeted killing by the US, there have been changes in the activity of the Iraqi pro-Iranian militias. These changes included personal changes in the leadership, the establishment of new militias as façades of the existing ones in order to maintain a low profile while carrying out attacks, and the expansion of the militias’ involvement in internal Iraqi as well as regional and global issues, such as the struggle a Read more...

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