Like many pro-Palestinian organizations, the PLF is motivated by what it sees as the "liberation" of all of Palestine and the destruction of the state of Israel.

The Abu Abbas faction was formerly estimated to have 300 to 400 members. Its current strength is unknown.

Although the PLF has received financial support from Libya and Lebanon in the past, Western intelligence officials believe the group received most of its support from Iraq until the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Documents uncovered after the fall of Hussein, and reported by the Iraq Study Group in October of 2004, show that Iraq funded the PLF with the proceeds from 11.5 million barrels of oil through the U.N.'s oil-for-food program.

The PLF has conducted bombings, kidnappings, murders and other terrorist attacks. The Abu Abbas faction is known for its aerial attacks on Israeli targets. From 2007 through 2009, the group appeared to be honoring a pledge to suspend terrorist activities -- or it has simply disintegrated in large part due to the dispersal of refugees in Lebanon and other factors.

The PLF was established in April 1977 following the split from Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Muhammad Zaidan (Abu Abbas) and Tal'at Ya'akub assumed control of the new organization.

During 1983-1984, the new group split into three factions, each keeping the original name and claiming to represent the central organization. Following Ya'akub's death in November 1989, Abbas' group reunited with Ya'akub's faction, with Abbas becoming general secretary of the organization. Later that year, Abbas joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization's (PLO) Executive Committee, making the PLF a satellite faction of Fatah, the PLO's ruling party.

The PLF conducted its terrorist activities against Israel primarily from the Lebanese border. The Abu Abbas faction was responsible for the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and the failed assault against the Israeli coast in 1990. Following the Achille Lauro operation, which greatly embarrassed the PLO, the PLF moved its base of operations to Iraq, where intelligence officials believe it was employed in operations against the Turks in the north of Iraq as well as Iran.

1977
April: The PLF was established as a result of a split within the PFPL-GC.

1978
September: There was a failed attempt by a PLF unit to penetrate the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

1979
April: Four PLF terrorists entered Israel by boat from Lebanon and seized a house in Nahariya. The PLF squad killed two family members and a police officer, wounding four others.

1981
March: Members of the PLF attempted to attack Haifa from Lebanon using hang gliders. The gliders were forced to land near the Israeli border, where their pilots were captured.

April: Another aerial attempt to attack Israel failed when two PLF militants flying a balloon were shot down by the Israel Defense Forces, killing both.

1983-1984
PLF split into three factions, led respectively by Abu Abbas, Tal’at Ya’akub and Abd al-Fatah Ghanim.

1985
October: Four PLF terrorists overran the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and killed U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer. The group later surrendered to Egyptian authorities who allowed Abu Abbas and the squad to fly away on an Egyptian plane, which was later forced to land in Sicily by U.S. fighters. Italy then claimed jurisdiction, released Abu Abbas and later imprisoned the hijackers.

1989
November: Abbas' group reunited with Ya’akub’s group. Later, Abbas joined the PLO Executive Committee.

1990
May: A group of 17 PLF members tried to attack Tel Aviv beaches and hotels using rubber boats. Israeli forces intercepted the craft, killing four terrorists and capturing 12. The terrorists were found to have received training and logistical support from Libya.

1993
After the Oslo accords, Abu Abbas' faction accepted the PLO's announced decision to abandon terrorist activities.

2003
April: Abbas was captured by U.S. Special Forces during the invasion of Iraq.

2004
March: Abbas died in U.S. custody, reportedly from natural causes.

2006
January: The PLF took part in the Palestinian parliamentary elections -- placing 11 candidates on the ballot -- but failed to win a seat.

July 10: The Lebanese group Hezbollah launched a cross-border raid and captured two Israeli soldiers. The soldiers' safe return was offered in exchange for the release of a prisoner, Samir Kuntar, a PLF militant who led the 1979 attack in Nahariya. The raid triggered a 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.

2007
The U.S. State Dept.’s annual report on terrorism reported no activity by the PLF during 2007.

May 20: Lebanese security forces stormed the Nahr El Bared refugee camp near Tripoli, that was occupied by more than 30,000 Palestinian refugees and their successors. The attack, undertaken to combat actions by the Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam, resulted in a major humanitarian crises and caused the dispersal of many inhabitants to other camps or safe areas. The United Nations and other relief agencies conducted an emergency camp relief program. The PLF was one of about ten Palestinian political/militant organizations within the camps, although it was generally regarded as a minor group within the various factions. Militants in the Nahr El Bared camp resisted the attack and the conflict continued into June 2007.

May 28: The conflict in Nahr El Bared revealed that Bassam al-Ashker, one of the participants in the Achille Lauro hijacking, was still alive. In a telephone interview, al-Ashker said that he was training militants in the camp and was associated with the Palestinian Fatah group aligned with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Aged 17 at the time of the cruise ship hijacking in 1985, al-Ashker reportedly fled to Italy, then went to Iraq after his parole in 1991. He later fought against the U.S. in Fallujah and Ramadi. Earlier reports suggested that al-Ashker died in 2004.

2008
July 16: Israel released PLF militant Samir Kuntar, who had spent nearly 30 years in an Israeli prison, in exchange for two Israeli soldiers captured by Lebanon-based Hezbollah in 2006.