Country Report on Terrorism 2022 - Chapter 5 - Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

Aka PFLP; Halhul Gang; Halhul Squad; Palestinian Popular Resistance Forces; PPRF; Red Eagle Gang; Red Eagle Group; Red Eagles; Martyr Abu-Ali Mustafa Battalion.

Description:  The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) was designated as an FTO on October 8, 1997.  PLFP is a Marxist-Leninist group founded in 1967 by George Habash after splitting from the Arab Nationalist Movement.  The group earned a reputation for committing large-scale international attacks in the 1960s and 1970s, including airline hijackings that killed more than 20 U.S. citizens.

Activities:  PFLP increased its operational activity during the Second Palestinian Intifada.  During that time the group assassinated Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in 2001, carried out at least two suicide operations, and with other Palestinian terrorist groups launched multiple joint operations.

Since 2014, PFLP has conducted numerous attacks, including a 2014 attack in which two Palestinians reportedly affiliated with PFLP entered a Jerusalem synagogue and attacked Israelis with guns, knives, and axes, killing five persons, including three U.S. citizens; a 2017 attack involving two PFLP members near East Jerusalem’s Old City that killed an Israeli border security agent.  Two of the militants were PFLP members, although ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack; and an alleged 2019 PFLP detonation of an IED in the West Bank, killing an Israeli teenager and seriously wounding two others.  In 2020, Israeli security forces in the West Bank arrested approximately 50 members of a PFLP cell believed to be behind a string of deadly attacks in the area and seized weapons and bomb making materials.  In 2021, PFLP claimed responsibility for 36 rockets fired at Israel.  PFLP remained active but did not claim responsibility for any attacks in 2022.

Strength:  Precise numbers are unknown.

Location/Area of Operation:  Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank.

Funding and External Aid:  Sources of support are unknown.

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