What is Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon? Fighters shed light on role in Gaza war

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The secret safe house chosen by the former Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander and his colleague, a fighter currently active in the group’s armed wing, the Quds Brigades, was a small, dimly lit and unexpectedly well-decorated room in the southern Lebanese city of Saida.

Both Abu Sari, the former commander, and Abu Sajed, a special forces fighter and the room’s interior decorator, agreed to the interviews on the condition of anonymity. They staggered their arrival times to avoid detection and arrived with their heads and faces covered.

“People of my rank can be counted on one hand,” said the former commander, Abu Sari, as his bodyguards waited outside.

Abu Sari still maintains close affiliation with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, reactivating in times of need and operating for them on a retainer basis. “We’re each considered a cadre, responsible for our own fighters and trainees.”

He is Lebanese and claims to be among the first 17 members to have joined PIJ in Lebanon in the 1980s.

“I have a deputy who directly trains the men and gives them the necessary guidance,” he added. “But they’re not tied to each other, not like a string of beads where if one person dies the whole thing becomes undone. There’s no interdependence.”

The speech of the radical militants clashed with their surroundings: a mise-en-scène of terracotta wallpaper and vintage novelties. Although the two militants declined to discuss the safe house’s use, it was clear great care had been taken to make it feel like a home-away-from-home.

According to the commander, each cadre commands around 100 fighters divided into factions of approximately 30 fighters per group. The factions are then split into secret cells consisting of three-10 fighters per guerrilla unit.

Fighter Abu Sajed, who is the leader of one such unit within the Quds Brigades, provided some insight into the organisation’s covert cell-like command structure.

“Each person is trusted to have combat intuition, so we don’t wait for orders to fight” once they’ve been deployed, Abu Sajed said. “We hit our targets, accomplish our objective, then withdraw.”

“In guerrilla warfare, every fighter has agency to make their own decisions on the field,” he added.