Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade in Palestine

Unlike most other Palestinian Islamist groups, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade does not believe in any sort of Palestinian nationalism, since its affiliation to ISIL advocates the rule of caliphate rather than nationality. The socio-political and geopolitical ideology of the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade can hence be defined as Pan-Islamist rather than Pan-Nationalist (in the patriotic sense), since it works towards (see Pan-Islamism Wikipedia page for more details):

"...a form of religious nationalism [that] differentiates itself from other pan-nationalistic ideologies, for example Pan-Arabism, by excluding culture and ethnicity as primary factors towards unification..."

Emergence

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade is a small Islamist and Salafist militant group based in the West Bank of Palestine, which was first taken note of during the Syrian Civil War. The war in Syria started with rebel factions, that ultimately split off into the FSA and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an organization that itself originated from AQI, a branch of Al-Qaeda. Like ISIL, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade also evolved from a former Al-Qaeda branch, which called itself the "Army of Islam", possibly out of inspiration. Its affiliation to ISIL was only claimed by the group alone, and was hereby unofficial, until ISIL eventually declared on July 9, 2014 that they were "operating in Gaza". At the time, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade was not yet formed as a brigade or group, which is why it had often (incorrectly) been 'blurred out' by many as part of the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine.

Its emergence as a group followed dozens of arrests carried out by the ruling political and militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in a crack down by Hamas on possible Islamic State affiliate groups and Jihadists in the area. The crack down began in early 2015, but heavily intensified during the months of April and May that year.

However, the crackdown is not regarded as a prime reason for the recent spike in Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade members. Earlier in 2015, during the Battle of Yarmouk Camp in Syria, various Hamas-linked Palestinian rebel factions were attacked by ISIL, and over 2000 Palestinian refugees under the protection of these factions were forced to flee the area. This may consequentially have had an influence on various Islamists in Palestine, who no longer believed in Hamas' legitimate authority due to its defeat in Yarmouk.

Moreover, the ISIL offensive in Yarmouk was particularly humiliating for Hamas, when a senior Hamas official, Sheikh Abu Salah Taha, was reportedly beheaded by the ISIL militants. It is thought that the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, which was then known in the general media as "Islamic State in Gaza", took advantage of these events to boost its own agenda in Palestine.

Structure, Affiliation and Military

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade said in a statement, released in aftermath of the Hamas crackdown in May 2015, that "In the light of Hamas’ new crackdown, we renew our loyalty to ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and call on him to strengthen his influence and to launch a campaign in Palestine," emphasising its affiliation to ISIL.

The group is deemed a direct affiliate of the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis organization (which reportedly changed its name to "Al Dalwa Al-Islamia" following its pledge of allegiance to IS in November 2014, although is still commonly referred and often self-proclaimed as its former name), a Jihadist group based in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, although it was previously thought that clashes between Syrian ISIL and Ansar Bait al-Maqdis militants during the Battle of Yarmouk Camp, that resulted in the death of 15 Ansar Bait al-Maqdis fighters, might have brought the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade to distance itself from its latter affiliate. This was later proven to be incorrect on June 2, 2015, when new evidence showed that one of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis' brigades was in fact the self-proclaimed Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. On June 2, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, the Sinai-based Jihadist and Salafist group, claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on central Israel (from Gaza) that had been carried out the previous week, and also claimed responsibility for the assassination of Siam (see later), on behalf of the Sheikh Omar Hadid brigade. This new development provided the conclusive evidence that the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade was in fact much more strongly affiliated to Ansar Bait al-Maqdis than previously thought, and that the brigade the group described as the "Army of the Islamic State" was in fact another name for the self-proclaimed "Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade". This suggested that the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade could in fact have individualised itself more in recent months from the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group, possibly under the influence of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis other ally, ISIL (relations between the groups were reaffirmed once again following the conflict at Yarmouk), becoming a separate group of its own rather than remaining as one of the former's brigades. This information itself suggests the possibility of a Syria-Gaza-Sinai axis amongst the three groups (being; ISIL, Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade and Ansar Bait al-Maqdis), which would explain the sudden increase in arms that the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade claimed to have obtained in recent months.

The Egyptian group from which the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade first originated from, Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, appears to have split-off into another recently individualised group, formerly known as "Ajnad Misr" (Soldiers of Egypt) and presently known as "Sinai Province" or "Wilayat Sinai" (although still often referred to by the former), a Sinai-based group. The group's former leader Humam Muhammed pledged full allegiance to ISIL in late 2014, thereby founding the new Ajnad Misr-originated Salafist group Sinai Province (although often rather confusingly referred to by the general Western media as "ISIS in Gaza"^(also)), a group presently believed to be the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade's arms-trade affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula. Following the leader's assassination by Egyptian police forces on April 5, 2015, the group has become increasingly disbanded. Despite this, it has been gaining an increasing presence in the Gaza Strip, where members are thought to be working closely by the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade as previously mentioned. The Egyptian group is known to display identical ideologies to those the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade i.e. the targeting of national security forces (Hamas and Fatah officials in the case of the ASheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, and the Egyptian Armed Forces in the case of Sinai Province), followed by the establishment of the al-Sham caliphate (see Ajnad Misr Wikipedia page for more details). Both groups are amongst the many small, yet rapidly growing Gaza-Egyptian ISIL-affiliated groups, which some experts believe could eventually combine forces in the event of an Islamic State insurgency in the area, this possibly resulting in a cross-border civil war. However, due to Egyptian reinforcements along the Gazan border during June 2015, others have suggested that this wouldn't be possible, at least during the near future.

Designation as a Terrorist Organization

Taking into account the fact that the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade group had formerly been an active brigade of the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group, as "Army of the Islamic State", all international terrorist designations given to Ansar Bait al-Maqdis also apply to the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, these having been given by; Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America (see Ansar Bait al-Maqdis for more details).

As of the official formation of the currently-known "Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade group" in early April 2015, and currently now known to be a confirmed affiliate group of ISIL, all international terrorist designations given to ISIL also apply to the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, these having been given by; the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Canada, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Egypt, India, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Syria (see Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant for more details).

The Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, also thought to have had partially originated from or later morphed with an older ISIL-linked group, that called itself "The Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem", was specifically designated a terrorist organisation by the United States of America, under this particular banner on August 19, 2014.