Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. It also has a presence in Lebanon and Syria. The PIJ leadership is located in Damascus. Other leadership elements reside in Lebanon.

Iran provides an estimated $2 million of state-sponsored funding to PIJ annually. PIJ may receive some logistic support from Syria, which provides the group with a safe haven. The group may also receive some financial support from Iran through Hezbollah.

The PIJ and Hamas were competitors during the 1980s. Some cooperation has taken place between the two groups in recent years, although clashes occur from time to time.

The PIJ is also affiliated with several lesser jihad groups, including Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the Islamic Jihad-the Temple and the Islamic Jihad Squad.

Since the 1980s, PIJ terrorists have been involved in a variety of attacks, including suicide bombings, assassinations, stabbings and kidnappings. PIJ has conducted some large-scale terrorist attacks, including a double bombing that killed 19 people in 1995.

Although PIJ counts the United States as one of its enemies, it has yet to directly target any U.S. interests, althoughAmerican citizens have been killed in PIJ attacks. It has threatened a violent response if the U.S. moves its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Unlike Hamas, which runs schools and hospitals, PIJ carries out no significant social or political activities. PIJ refuses to negotiate or engage diplomatically with Israel, and rejects any two-state arrangement in which Israel and Palestine coexist. It remains dedicated to waging jihad against Israel and its allies.

PIJ has been attempting to develop mortars and missiles at several sites in the West Bank, according to Israeli intelligence reports. Along with Hamas, PIJ is responsible for the regular rocket and mortar attacks on Israel originating in the Gaza Strip that have been taking place from mid-2008 to early 2009.

PIJ is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood is a Sunni Islamic movement that originated in Egypt in 1928 and has since spread to several other Arab states.

Military actions are often conducted by the PIJ’s Jerusalem Battalions wing. Officially known as the Saraya al-Quds (Al-Quds Brigades), the militant side of PIJ has several aliases, including Al-Qassam, Jerusalem Brigades, Sayf al-Islam Brigades and Al-Quds Battalions.

PIJ consists of a number of terrorist factions that emerged in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the 1970s. Fati Shakaki, Abdul Aziz Odeh and Bashir Moussa founded the most prominent faction of the PIJ between 1979 and 1981 when they were students in Egypt.

These three militants were dissatisfied with the methods of other Islamic groups, such as Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, in dealing with the Palestinian national question. Despite being Sunnis, Shakaki, Odeh and Moussa used the Iranian Islamic revolution as their model. They were later expelled from Egypt after authorities linked them to President Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981.

They relocated to Gaza to organize their operation. Their first attack was the 1987 assassination of an Israeli soldier. The Israelis forced the PIJ leadership out of Israel into Lebanon during the first Palestinian intifada.

While in Lebanon, Shakaki further consolidated the PIJ. He also made contacts with Iranian Revolutionary Guards stationed in Lebanon.

The PIJ attempted to undermine the Oslo Agreement with a series of terrorist attacks from 1995 to 1996. PIJ and Hamas also collaborated during this time. Israel apparently struck back when Mossad agents allegedly killed Shakaki in Malta in 1995.

Ramadan Adullah al-Shallah has since taken over as the leader of the PIJ. The onetime professor who formerly lived in Florida (1990-1995) is said to lack the charisma and leadership ability of Shakaki. Born in the Gaza Strip, Shallah spent five years at Durham University in northern England, where he reportedly coordinated PIJ activities by routing orders to and from cells in the Palestinian territories. He currently leads the PIJ from Damascus where the group is now headquartered.

In Tampa, Fla., Shallah helped lead the Islamic Concern Project (also known as the Islamic Committee for Palestine). The organization distributed PIJ literature that glorified suicide bombers as martyrs. Shallah also headed a think-tank called the World Islam and Studies Enterprise (WISE), which was affiliated with the University of South Florida. WISE allegedly sponsored visits by Islamic radicals to the United States.

During the 1980s, several other factions of the PIJ were established and became active during the first Palestinian intifada.

Late 1970s
Fati Shakaki, Abdul Aziz Odeh and Bashir Moussa started the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Egypt.

1982
Islamic Jihad Organization-Al-Aqsa Battalions was founded in Jordan by Sheikh Asad Bayyud al-Tamimi.

1987
August: Israeli military police commander Capt. Ron Tal was shot by PIJ's Shakaki faction.

1993
Oct. 9: An Islamic Jihad faction claimed responsibility for the shootings of two Israelis.

Nov 7: Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the stabbing of an Israel Defense Forces sergeant at a Gaza Strip road block.

Dec. 5: PIJ's Shakaki faction killed an IDF reservist aboard a bus.

1994
Feb 9: The Shakaki faction kidnapped and murdered a taxi driver.

Nov. 11: Three IDF officers were killed by a PIJ suicide bomber in the Gaza Strip.

1995
Jan. 22: Two suicide bombers killed 18 IDF troops and one civilian near Netanya.

April 9: PIJ killed eight IDF non-commissioned officers in a car bombing.

October: Mossad agents allegedly killed PIJ leader Fathi Shakaki in Malta.

1996
March 4: A PIJ suicide bomber detonated a 40-pound nail bomb in Tel Aviv, killing 13 people.

2000
Oct. 2: PIJ claimed responsibility for two civilian deaths in West Jerusalem.

2001
July 17: A PIJ suicide bomber killed two soldiers in Binyamina.

Nov. 29: A suicide bomber from PIJ killed three people aboard a bus in Jerusalem.

2003
Feb. 20: Eight senior members of PIJ, including Ramadan Adullah al-Shallah, were indicted by the U.S. on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to provide support to terrorists. Four of those charged were in custody at the time of the indictment; four others were overseas and, as of this update, remain at large.

Oct. 4: PIJ claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 19.

Oct. 5: Israeli warplanes bombed several targets at the Ein Saheb camp outside Damascus, Syria, in retaliation for the Haifa bombing. Israel said the camp was a PIJ training center.

2004
May 18: Israel began a three-day operation in the Gaza city of Rafah to round up suspected militants and destroy tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt. Several Islamic Jihad members were captured or killed.

2005
February: PIJ, along with several other Palestinian terrorist groups, agreed to an informal truce with Israel while they considered accepting a cease-fire agreement hammered out by Israeli and Palestinian officials.

July 12: A PIJ suicide bomber blew himself up outside a mall in Netanya, Israel, killing four and wounding 70. Following the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the IDF "to do as much harm as possible to the leadership of the Islamic Jihad terror organization." The order effectively ended the informal truce begun in February.

August: Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders ordered Kassam rocket fire at Israeli positions to cease until after Jewish settlers withdrew from Gaza.

Aug. 28: A Palestinian suicide bomber carried out an attack in the Israeli city of Beersheba, killing himself and injuring 48 others. PIJ and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsiblity for the attack.

Dec. 5: A PIJ suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a shopping mall in the Israeli city of Netanya, killing at least five people and wounding 35.

2006
Jan. 29: Israeli launched missile strikes that killed two senior Islamic Jihad members, including Khaled Dado, commander of PIJ forces in Gaza, and Adnan Bustan, an alleged rocket-maker.

February: Islamic Jihad leaders refused to join the Hamas-led Palestinian government. "If the government will have an agenda of resistance, we will support it," said Khaled al-Batsh, a leader of the militant group.

Aug 2. PIJ’s Al-Quds Brigades claimed responsibility for a rocket attack that struck an Israeli power plant in Asqalan in southern Israel.

Aug. 23: Israeli troops shot and killed Hussam Jaradat, a top PIJ commander. Jaradat was believed to be responsible for carrying out numerous PIJ terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens.

Sept. 19: Israeli soldiers arrested a senior PIJ leader in the northern West Bank city of Jenin. Ayman A'teeq, a senior commander of the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad, is believed to have coordinated a series of attacks against Israel.

2007
Jan. 29: A Palestinian suicide bomber crossed the Egyptian border into Israel and hitchhiked to Eilat with an Israeli motorist. The man blew himself up inside a bakery in the Red Sea resort town, killing three people. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Palestine Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

Feb. 13: The U.S. government announced a $5 million reward for Ramadan Adullah al-Shallah. The notice said Shallah was wanted for "conspiracy to conduct the affairs of the terrorist organization PIJ through a pattern of racketeering activities such as bombings, murder, extortions and money laundering."

Sept. 11: Palestinian militants launched a rocket from Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip, hitting an Israeli army base in Zikim. The rocket landed on a barracks where recruits were sleeping, wounding 69 Israeli soldiers. The Nasr Salah al-Din Brigades, the Palestinian Resistance Committee's armed wing, and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Oct. 22: PIJ and Hamas militants clashed in Rafah, Gaza, killing one Palestinian and wounding at least 12. PIJ members reportedly tried to abduct a Hamas member, but failed. Hamas then responded by seizing 15 PIJ members, including the top commander in Rafah.

Oct. 26: A PIJ gunman was gunned down near the southern town of Khan Younis during an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Nov. 2: PIJ and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for at least 13 rockets fired out of the Gaza Strip into Israel's western Negev region.

Dec. 18: Two senior PIJ militants were killed by the IDF. An airstrike in northern Gaza City killed the head of Islamic Jihad's armed wing, Majed Harazin. Israeli commandos also killed senior PIJ member Tareq Abu Ghali in the West Bank town of Kabatiya.

Dec. 28: Mohammad Abu Murshud, the head of Islamic Jihad's armed wing in the central Gaza Strip, was killed in an IDF airstrike.

2008
Jan. 16: After Islamic Jihad militants fired at least 25 Kassam rockets at southern Israel, Israeli special operations troops raided the home of Walid Obeidi in Kabatiya, killing him. Obeidi was the military leader for Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.

March 13: PIJ militants fired a dozen rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, allegedly in response to Israeli raids that killed four Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank a day earlier.

May 15: A Grad rocket fired out of Gaza struck a shopping mall in the Israeli port city of Ashkelon, destroying a children's clinic and injuring 16 people. PIJ and the Popular Resistance Committees claimed joint responsibility for the attack.

May 22: A suicide truck bomber approaching the Erez border crossing apparently detonated his explosives early, killing only himself. A jeep filled with gunmen accompanied the truck, but they fled after the explosion. Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claimed joint responsibility.

June 17: A six-month cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was signed. While PIJ was not a signatory, Israel said it considered all PIJ attacks during the truce's period to be a violation of the cease-fire.

June 25: PIJ fired four rockets and a mortar out of Gaza into Israel, allegedly in retaliation for an Israeli attack in the West Bank town of Nablus that killed two of its members.

Oct. 16: Four members of a PIJ terror cell were arrested in the West Bank town of Kabatiya. Two 45-lb. bombs were confiscated and safely detonated.

Dec. 16: A PIJ commander, Jihad Nawahda, was shot and killed by undercover Israeli military personnel in the West Bank. The group responded by launching a rocket and mortar attack out of Gaza into the western Negev.

Dec. 18: PIJ claimed responsibility for about two dozen rockets and mortars that were launched out of Gaza into Israel.

2009
Feb. 5: Ala Abu Rob, PIJ's commander in the West Bank town of Kabatiya, was killed by Israeli special operations forces after raiding his home.

Feb. 9: Israeli troops spotted an armed PIJ militant attempting to cross the Gaza-Israel border and opened fire. The militant's explosive belt detonated, killing him. In a statement, PIJ said the man was a part of a squad that planned to attack Israeli troops.

Feb. 23: Two PIJ militants seen planting explosive devices near the Kissufim border crossing were pursued into Gaza by Israeli troops. PIJ said they were part of an operation to abduct Israeli soldiers.