^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Popular Resistance Committees (Palestine)

لجان المقاومة الشعبية, (Popular Resistance Comittees)


image by Jaume Ollé, 03 Apr 2003	image by Jaume Ollé and Eugene Ipavec, 30 Apr 2007

Introduction
Description
Emblem
Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades
Ambush knowledge of the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades

See also:

Political Parties (Palestine)
Palestine

Introduction

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) are a Palestinian militant network which operates in the Gaza Strip and are regarded as terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States. Set up late 2000 by former Fatah and Tanzim member Jamal Abu Samhadana, the PRC are composed of ex-Fatah militants combined with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades activists. The PRC specializes in planting roadside bombs and vehicle explosive charges directed against military and civilian convoys in the Gaza Strip.
Source: Wikipedia
Esteban Rivera, 06 Jun 2005

Description

A number of today's Yahoo pictures show demonstrations in the Gaza strip, including a black flag with some seal-like device in the center. Another UFE?
Jorge Candeias, 28 Mar 2003

The black flag is the flag of the Popular Comittee of the Intifada. The flag is very close to the Islamic Jihad flag (similiarity only in aspect because the Popular Comittee is a most comprensive organization, with all tendencies represented), whose flag has a different central device showing the Omar mosque and two fists (one against other, towards the center). The sourrounding letters are, I believe, the Shahada (I don't remember if the text was translated by Jose Luis Cepero when this flags was published in Flag Report about two years ago, not due to lack of will from him but because in the first photos I posted him the inscription was not clear enough and it took me some time obtain better photos). In the Popular Comittee flag the sourrondings words must be also the Shahada, but this flag is more often used without surrounding Arabic letters.
Jaume Ollé, 28 Mar 2003

The latter looks to me like a white-logo-on-black version of the Hizbullah flag.
Santiago Dotor, 04 Apr 2003

It does show similarities, but it's not the same thing. I blew up a bit the flag, and the symbol is now relatively well-visible. It does how what looks like the hand holding a kalashnikov, but the base is different, and in the Hezbollah flag there is no arabic text circling the symbol.
It could be something related with the Hezbollah. A variation, the flag of a related Palestinian organization, something like that. But this is speculation.
Jorge Candeias, 03 Apr 2003

The flag you are talking is the flag of the Palestinian Popular Resistance Comittees, and certainly is not related to Hezbollah which is a Lebanese, not Palestinian, organization, even if both organization fought against foreign occupation in their respective countries (though Hezbollah has already achieved its objectives except for a small frontier territory called Sheba Farms that they continue to claim). The flag in question has on it the dome of the Umar mosque of Al Quds (Jerusalem), a clearly Palestinian symbol. (However a black flag with the Hezbollah emblem does exist.)
The small inscription (below) the emblem was drawn as the close as possible from the photo (considering that I have no idea of Arabic) and corrections are welcomed.
Jaume Ollé, 03 Apr 2003

Well, the flag in the Yahoo photo is neither of these two. The main symbol is different from both those of the PPRC and the Hezbollah, and the circle of writing is absent also in both of them.
Again, could be a variation, or something totally different. The writing looks more Latin than Arabic, though.
Jorge Candeias, 03 Apr 2003

Yes, it's a variation, The inscription is featured sometimes surrounding the emblem.
Jaume Ollé, 05 Apr 2003

Emblem

contributor and date unknown

image located by William Garrison, 9 January 2024

A white-field flag with the emblem of the "Popular Resistance Committees" coalition [Arabic: : لجان المقاومة الشعبية, Lijān al-Muqāwama al-Shaʿbiyya]; that operated in Gaza, c. 2005. Per Wikipedia: It is a coalition of a number of armed Palestinian groups opposed to what they regard as the conciliatory approach of the "Palestinian Authority" and "Fatah" towards Israel. It should not be confused with the "Palestinian Popular Committees" organization. The Arabic slogan above the AK-47 rifle reads: "Kill them wherever you find them" – possibly referring to Zionist occupiers of the green "Greater Palestine" as seen in their logo. The large, black Arabic word in the center reads: "Resistance", while the bottom red slogan reads: "Popular Resistance Committees." There is a hidden flag-pole sleeve at the left side (hoist).
William Garrison, 9 January 2024

Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades

images located by William Garrison, 26 February 2024

A flag and logo of the "Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades" (Arabic: ألوية الناصر صلاح الدين, lit. "Brigades of Saladin the Victorious") is the military wing of the "Popular Resistance Committees", which is a set of various Palestinian militant organizations that operate in the Gaza Strip; c. 2001. Just below the black dome is a small, thin red Arabic slogan that reads: "And kill them wherever you find them", which is the beginning segment of Quran 2:191 that reads: "And kill them wherever you find them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah [Persecution] is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram [Temple Mount] until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers [non-Muslims]." The bottom black Arabic line reads: "Al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades". This could be a Shia-Muslim militia as one can see that the horseman is brandishing a two-prong sword call "Zulfiqar". The white Arabic slogan on the green triangular pennant reads: "There is no god but Allah". This militia in June 2005 allegedly kidnapped an Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and held him until Oct. 2011. In December 2023, the brigades reportedly engaged in combat with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in "Khan Yunis", a city on the southern front of the Israeli incursion of the Gaza Strip. {Although the wording does not appear at the bottom of this flag, the short slogan at the bottom of the logo reads: "Rafah District", which is in the "Khan Yunis Governate" in the Gaza Strip.} There is a hidden flag-pole sleeve at the left (hoist) side.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Nasser_Salah_al-Deen_Brigades
William Garrison, 26 February 2024

Ambush knowledge of the al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades

image located by William Garrison, 15 September 2024

Source: https://www.middleeasteye.net

The national flag of Palestine with two black Arabic slogans on the middle white stripe, as seen being paraded in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza (Palestine), by armed members of the "al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades" ("Brigades of Saladin the Victorious"), on 29 Sept. 2023. The top black Arabic slogan reads: "Knowledge of Ambush", essentially meaning: "We know how to ambush". The bottom line reads: "al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades" [Deen = Din].

The "Ambush" expertise refers to an incident when early on 17 Feb 2018, a member of the "al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades" placed a regular, unadorned, national flag of Palestine on a flagpole into the wire fence dividing southeastern Gaza from Israel. The flagpole had been booby-trapped inside with explosives. A passing Israeli patrol - after checking for boobytraps around the flag -- removed the flag along with its flagpole from the fence. Once the single Israeli bomb-disposal soldier carried the flag and pole back to his teammates, a member of the "al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades" detonated the explosive-filled flagpole by remote control, which resulted in wounding four Israelis.

This unit is the military wing of the "Popular Resistance Committees" that operates in the Gaza Strip. The hoist is along the red-triangle side of this flag. Interestingly, this 2019 flag exists as a reference to the earlier 2018 flag incident. This flag was seen as early as January 2019. 2018 ambush-film source: https://www.newarab.com. Original photo of this commemorative 2023 "ambush" flag is at: https://www.alamy.com.

Story source: https://www.longwarjournal.org

William Garrison, 15 September 2024