Al-Qaeda

News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (October 31 – November 6, 2012)

Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continues. This past week two rocket hits were identified in Israeli territory. Three IDF soldiers conducting routine counterterrorism activities near the security fence were wounded. A remark made by Mahmoud Abbas to Israel’s Channel 2 TV implying he had relinquished the so-called “right of return” enraged the Palestinians (especially
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Implications of the death of Hisham Saidani, a top global jihad operative in the Gaza Strip, who died in a targeted killing carried out by the IDF

On the night of October 12-13, as part of the IDF’s counter-terrorism activities, an Israeli Air Force aircraft attacked two motorcyclists in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (October 10-16, 2012)

This past week rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory continued. Seven rocket hits were identified. The Palestinian Authority continues its political activities to promote a vote in the UN General Assembly for non-member status of a Palestinian state.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (October 3-9, 2012)

This past week there was another round of escalation in rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. On October 6 the IDF intercepted and downed a drone which entered Israeli territory from the sea.
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (September 12-19, 2012)

Rocket fire into Israeli territory continues. Three rocket landings were detected in open areas this past week. There were no casualties and no damage was caused. Terrorist organizations operating in the Middle East, particularly Hezbollah and Hamas, joined the wave of anti-American protests sweeping the Arab and Muslim world over the film Innocence of Muslims
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News of Terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (September 5-11, 2012)

This past week four long-range rockets landed in Israeli territory near the town of Netivot and the city of Beersheba. For the past ten days there have been violent public protests in Judea and Samaria, with hundreds of demonstrators taking to the streets to protest the cost of living.
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Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global Islamic terrorist organization founded by Palestinian terrorist operative Abdullah Azzam in 1988. Al-Qaeda originated in Afghanistan as an underground movement that operated against the Soviet occupation. Since its establishment, Al-Qaeda operated under the leadership and funding of Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda was officially defined as an organized entity in 1988 by its founder and first leader, Osama bin Laden. Since being defined as an organized entity, Al-Qaeda has become a global Islamic terrorist organization operating in many arenas around the world. Ideologically, Al-Qaeda relies on the Salafi school of Islam, viewing jihad as the personal duty of every Muslim.

Al-Qaeda does not operate in a clear hierarchical framework, but rather as a confederation of terrorist organizations that carry out the organization’s ideology and tactics. Osama bin Laden served as a source of inspiration and guidance for carrying out terrorist activity. The organization also provides various types of assistance and support to terrorist organizations that advocate global jihad around the world.

Al-Qaeda was behind a series of showcase attacks against the United States, the most prominent of which was the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda’s activities also included harming the civilian population and damaging the holy sites of various religions. After a prolonged manhunt, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed by US Army forces on May 2, 2011. He was replaced by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian who was also one of the founders of Al-Qaeda.

In recent years, Al-Qaeda’s center of power in Afghanistan and Pakistan has grown weaker. At the same time, local networks affiliated with Al-Qaeda in various Muslim countries have grown stronger, including Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), based in Yemen; Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and the Fateh al-Sham Front in Syria.