The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
On May 9, 2023, Israel launched Operation Shield and Arrow against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the Gaza Strip, during which it killed four senior members of the movement from the air.[1]Numerous elements in the Arab and Islamic world responded to the operation, including several Iran-backed militias in Iraq. These groups expressed support for “the Islamic resistance” to Israel as well as full readiness to assist the forces fighting against Israel with weapons and with manpower.
The following is a review of statements published by these militias from the start of the operation:
On May 10, 2023, the Iraqi Hizbullah Brigades militia posted a message on its Telegram channel in which it harshly criticized Israel for harming civilians in the Gaza Strip and asserted that the attack on the senior PIJ members “Will not deter our Palestinian people from the option of resistance and will not exhaust its strength.” The militia declared its support for the Palestinian resistance to Israel and added that “the response to this [Israeli] crime must be a hard lesson the price for which will be paid by the temporary entity [i.e. Israel] and its helpers from among the forces of arrogance and the treacherous regimes of normalization which assist it in perpetrating its crimes.” The message also promises “not to abandon our dear Palestinian people in this conflict whose end has now become very near.”[2]