Palestinian Islamic Jihad is an armed adversary of Israel in Gaza and the northern West Bank. It governs nothing, so the Gaza plan's governance terms miss it; it is reached only as one of "the factions" the roadmap requires to cease operations and decommission, and it is party to no published text.
A symmetric arrangement: it reads the same from either side. Authored once, on one record.
The arrangement
- Status
- ActiveIn force and operating. Says nothing about how well it is working, or about which way it is heading.Last material change: 2025-10-10.
- What it covers
- DefenceCategories the arrangement is documented to include. Not a measure: a relationship covering more of them is described in more detail, not held more firmly.
Summary
PIJ has been in open armed conflict with Israel since its founding in Gaza in 1981 and took part in the war that began on 7 October 2023: the Board of Peace records the 251 hostages as taken "by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups". It is not a party to any published ceasefire instrument. The US plan endorsed by Resolution 2803 addresses Hamas by name and "other factions" generally; the Board's roadmap of 30 July 2026 requires "Hamas and the factions" to cease all military operations and hand weapons and governance functions to the Palestinian technocratic committee. Whether PIJ accepted the roadmap is not established. In the northern West Bank, armed formations such as the Jenin Brigade, described by the parties and press as linked mainly to PIJ and Hamas, were the target of the PA's operation of December 2024 and of Israel's Operation Iron Wall from January 2025.
Why it matters
Decommissioning in Gaza cannot be complete if it binds Hamas alone, and in the West Bank PIJ-linked formations were a stated target of Iron Wall, whose camp closures still displace more than 33,000 people according to OHCHR. Keeping PIJ as its own relationship shows where the Gaza instruments stop.
Related events
- The Hamas-led attack on Israel 7 Oct 2023
Military · Humanitarian
- Operation Iron Wall empties the northern West Bank refugee camps 21 Jan 2025 onward
Military · Humanitarian
- The Board of Peace publishes a disarmament roadmap for Gaza 30 Jul 2026
Diplomatic · Military · Political
What remains unknown
- PIJ's position on the 30 July 2026 roadmap, its current leadership and strength, and its relationship to the October 2025 ceasefire are not established from any source read.
- The attribution of individual West Bank formations to PIJ rests on the parties' statements and press reporting; Vigil authors no order of battle for them.
Readings the evidence also supports
- PIJ's absence from the texts may reflect its subordination in practice to Hamas's negotiating position rather than an independent stance; the evidence read does not distinguish the two.
Listed because the record's own assessment is not the only one its sources permit — not as a hedge on the assessment above.
Watch questions this relationship bears on
Standing analytical questions whose evidence runs through this relationship, each with its latest review. Derived from the Watch object, never restated here.
All Levant relationships Open in Explore
Assessed as of — 2026-07-30 Last reviewed — 2026-10-11