Quwat al-Jalil and Attacks on Israel: Interview

Readers may remember that Quwat al-Jalil (“The Galilee Forces”) first came to prominence as a Palestinian faction supporting the forces of the Syrian government during the civil war. Most notably, a number of its fighters were killed in U.S. airstrikes in Syria’s Dayr az-Zor province- airstrikes that were (according to the U.S.) supposed to target the Islamic State. In more recent years, Quwat al-Jalil, led by one Fadi al-Mallah- has disappeared into obscurity in terms of its Syria-based activities (NB: I had spoken with Fadi a few times in the past but lost touch with him in 2022).

Quwat al-Jalil’s most recent iteration of a social media presence takes the form of a Telegram channel entitled “Quwat al-Jalil- The Lone Wolves” in which the channel encourages attacks on Israel (including instructions for making explosives and other devices to conduct attacks, claims attacks on Israel (conducted within Israel/“occupied Palestine”), makes threats against various Israeli targets (such as the prominent analyst Edy Cohen, who speaks Arabic but is generally unreliable in his information), and (today) has even urged Muslims to fight and kill Jews in every place as part of the obligation of jihad as an individual duty on every Muslim.

The same channel established a media outreach bot. I decided to reach out via this bot and conduct an interview with the organisation’s media wing, which, in the case of this Telegram channel, claims to be based within “occupied Palestine.”

This interview was conducted on 10 June 2023. It is slightly edited and condensed for clarity. Any parenthetical insertions in square brackets are my own.

Q: When was Quwat al-Jalil formed and what were the reasons for its formation, and what was its affiliation? How does Quwat al-Jalil differ from other Palestinian factions?

A: Quwat al-Jalil was formed in 2004 and was originally under the name of Ahrar al-Jalil [“The Free Men of the Galilee”] in Palestine, and specifically in the Arab community in northern Palestine. Shortly afterwards in 2011 and since the formation of Harakat Shabab al-Aouda al-Falastiniya [“Movement of the Youth of the Palestinian Return”], the actual announcement has been made that Quwat al-Jalil is a military wing for the movement operating in more than one country.