The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is an umbrella organization for a number of militant groups connected to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). PLO is the political organization which claims to represent Arabs living in the Gaza Strip, Israel, and the west bank of the Jordan River – territories which the PLO considers to be part of the historical region known as Palestine. ¹ As of April 2021, the U.S. State Department lists the PFLP as a designated foreign terrorist organization. ²

The PFLP identifies with Marxist-Leninist ideology, opposes the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and aims to replace Israel with a secular Palestinian state. The PFLP has rejected peace arrangements with Israel and has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Israel and Western countries, including the hijacking of several civilian airliners in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ³

History

In 1967, three militant Palestinian groups joined forces to form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). However, disagreements over ideology eventually caused the Front to split into new factions by 1968. The most prominent faction was the PFLP General Command. ¹ This faction declared itself to be an explicitly military group that would not engage in politics, especially not in any negotiations with Israel. The General Command initially identified exclusively with Marxist-Leninist ideology, but this changed in the late 1980s when the group started receiving assistance from Iran and began promoting Islamist ideology. ⁴

The influence of the PFLP and its factions, as well as that of far-left Palestinian groups in general, declined in the 1990s after the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, a more moderate government overseeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, the beginning of the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) against Israel in the early 2000s prompted the PFLP to escalate its attacks against Israel in order to regain influence. ⁴

Activities

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked and destroyed several Western commercial airliners. ¹ In one such attack in 1970, the PFLP bombed a Swiss airliner, killing all 47 passengers and crew members on board. In 1982, PFLP militants kidnapped three Israel Defense Forces reservists and successfully negotiated with Israel to exchange them for more than 1,100 Arab prisoners captured by Israel. In 1987, the Front conducted an attack using a hang glider that killed six Israeli troops. This would be the first of many terrorist attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets as part of the first intifada. In 2001, Israeli security forces seized a shipment of unguided surface-to-surface rockets and surface-to-air guided missiles that the PFLP had sent to the Gaza Strip. ⁴

Starting in the mid-2000s, the PFLP and its sympathizers began to participate in West Bank electoral politics, winning municipal council seats alongside the militant Hamas and Fatah movements. ⁵

In April 2021, the right-of-center Capital Research Center reported that Ahmad Saadat, the former PFLP secretary-general who was captured by Israeli forces and imprisoned for committing terrorist acts, had close ties to Sahar Francis, a board member of the pro-Palestinian organization Addameer. Addameer has worked with far-left, pro-Palestinian college campus group such as Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine to organize events where Francis gives lectures promoting the Palestinian side of the Israel-Palestine conflict. ⁶

October 7, 2023 Terror Attacks

According to media outlet NGO Monitor, on October 7, 2023, the PFLP allegedly released photos online of its military wing, Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, participating in the Hamas terrorist attacks against the state of Israel. Other statements were released by the organization including one that read, “Cells of the martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades stormed several [military] points in the Gaza envelope and have inflicted verified losses in the Zionist ranks. The cells have returned safely to their bases, and other cells are operating in the field now to inflict more losses in the ranks of the occupation army troops and the herds of their settlers.” ⁷

Another statement released by the PFLP that same day allegedly read: “‘The Al-Aqsa flood’ campaign is a campaign of the Palestinian people in all its resistance forces. In light of the heroic sights made possible by the heroes of the resistance inside the occupied lands.” ⁷ The statement further claimed “We stand with our brothers in the [Izz ad-Din] Al-Qassam Brigades and with all the resistance forces, and fight alongside them this campaign which will be noted in history. We call upon all resistance forces inside and outside of Palestine to take their positions in the trenches of confrontation which stretch now throughout all the area. Glory to the martyrs and victory to the resistance.” ⁷

In February 2025, it was announced that Georgetown Law University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter had invited PFLP member Rihbi Karajah to speak at their “Palestinian Prisoners” event scheduled to take place on campus. Karajah was previously arrested after being informed by fellow PFLP members of a terrorist attack in 2019 that occurred in the West Bank which killed a 17-year-old girl, Rina Shnerb, while inuring her father and brother, but did not act to inform or prevent it. ⁸

Leadership

Ahmad Saadat is the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Israeli authorities accused him of planning the assassination of Israel’s tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001. In response, Palestinian authorities detained Saadat, but in 2006, Israeli security forces assaulted the prison and captured Saadat. An Israeli court sentenced him to 30 years in prison for the assassination and other terrorist activity. ⁹

Ahmed Jibril is the leader of the PFLP General Command. He is a former Syrian military officer and was last known to be operating out of Damascus, Syria. ⁴

Support

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and its factions have received funding, training, and safe haven from the Syrian government. The PFLP General Command has also received support from the Iranian government. ⁴

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