TERRORIST GROUPS
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AAMB)
( AS OF JULY 2026 )
OVERVIEW
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade (AAMB) is a foreign terrorist organization formed in late 2000 during the second intifada as a militant wing of the West Bank’s Fatah political faction. The group seeks to drive Israeli military forces and settlers from Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and establish a Palestinian state. AAMB participated in the major HAMAS-led militant attack against Israel on 7 October 2023, and, in the ensuing conflict, it claimed attacks targeting Israel’s military and civilians. AAMB largely operates as a collection of loosely organized cells, although the group reportedly formed a joint operations unit with Katibat Jenin (the Jenin branch of Palestine Islamic Jihad) in the West Bank in February 2022, which, as of March 2024, was also cooperating with HAMAS.
OPERATING AREAS
Based primarily in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; may have members in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon
MEMBERS
Probably a few hundred fighters
TACTICS AND TARGETS
AAMB conducts military-style assaults, rocket attacks, bombings, ambushes, and suicide operations against military personnel and civilians in Israel. The group originally targeted Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in the Palestinian territories but shifted to targets inside Israel in 2002.
TERRORIST GROUP DESIGNATION
The US State Department designated AAMB a foreign terrorist organization in March 2002.
KEY LEADERS
AAMB has had no known overall leader since HAMAS detained the group’s former leader, Zaki al-Sakani, from 2008 to 2016. Each cell has its own local leader and independent operational agenda.
NOTABLE ATTACKS
8 October 2024
Hadera, Israel
An AAMB member stabs and injures six Israeli civilians near Haifa before Israeli security forces kill him.
7 October 2023
Israel
AAMB participates in the HAMAS-led attack. The attack as a whole resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping of at least 240 people.
November 2012
Israel
AAMB fires more than 500 rockets into Israel during Israeli military operations in Gaza.
January 2008
Israel
AAMB conducts joint rocket attacks with HAMAS and Palestine Islamic Jihad against military and civilian targets inside Israel, wounding more than 10 people.
5 January 2003
Southern Tel Aviv, Israel
AAMB conducts a double bombing outside a Tel Aviv bus station, killing 23 people and injuring 100.