How many armed groups are in Gaza and who are they?
How many armed groups are in Gaza and who are they?
There are various factions in the Gaza region that are against Israel and claim to be taking hostages against Israeli citizens. Who are they and why do they form different groups?
Hamas senior leader Moussa Abu Marzouk told the BBC in a recent interview that they were not responsible for all the Israeli hostages in the Gaza region.
Marzouk said some of the hostages were being held by "different factions" that took part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israeli territory.
BBC Verify has noted that at least five groups took part in the attack alongside Hamas.
Although these groups are united in using violence against Israel, they have different views on how a future Palestinian state should be run and the role of religion in it.
It is difficult to provide exact figures on the number of armed groups in Gaza. So what is there to know about them so far?
The name of this group is taken from the name of a cleric who is seen as a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israel.
This group has been involved in several wars with Israel. They have attacked Israeli citizens with suicide bombs and have also launched thousands of rockets.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, which began in the 1920s with the aim of spreading Islamic values and good deeds, but later became a political actor.
One of the goals of the Muslim Brotherhood is to create a state based on Islamic law or sharia.
In 2017, Hamas announced that it had severed ties with the Muslim Brotherhood.
However, BBC Arabic journalist Feras Kilani believes that this statement is only to protect certain interests. The relationship between the two organizations remains the same behind the scenes.
Categorized as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Britain, the European Union and a number of other entities, Hamas' military wing was the group that led the attack on Israel on October 7.
It is estimated that the group has between 20,000 and 30,000 members in the Gaza Strip.
No other group has the power and roots in managing the Gaza region like Hamas has.
Iran supports Hamas by providing funds, weapons and training. Hamas leaders have also thanked Iran publicly for its support several times.
The Al-Quds Brigade or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Palestinian Islamic Jihad - PIJ) is considered the group with the second largest military force in Gaza.
The group was founded in the 1980s as the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement – which again, like most other groups, was labeled a terror organization by Western governments.
The group's name, which refers to Jerusalem in Arabic, became famous after they were involved in fierce fighting with Israeli troops in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in 2002.
This group is said to have around 2,000 members. Al-Quds' ties with Iran are thought to be stronger than those with Hamas, according to our correspondent.
Although both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad want an independent Palestine with Islam playing an important role in governance, the Islamic Jihad group's version of a religious state has a harder line.
In a recent interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, one of the leaders of the Al-Quds Brigade admitted that they had taken 30 people hostage from Israel on October 7.
The PIJ leader also made the claim that they have now returned the hostages who are women and children.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader refused to say how many hostages they still hold.