Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC)

The Damascus-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-GC (PFLP-GC) splintered from the PFLP in 1968 due to differences between PFLP head George Habash and Ahmad Jibril, who founded the new group and was committed to armed struggle rather than political engagement with other Palestinian factions or a negotiated settlement with Israel. Funded and materially supported by Syria, the PFLP-GC committed several international terrorist attacks in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the organization primarily targeted U.S. and West German interests in Europe, although its fighters also took part in fighting the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

In the 1990s, the group carried out terror attacks in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It has not claimed responsibility for any attacks since 2015, but it did fight alongside Syrian regime forces during the Syrian civil war until at least 2020, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). Jibril died in 2021.

The group’s military wing – the Jihad Jibril Brigades, named after Jibril’s son – claimed to have participated in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 terror attack in Israel.

The PFLP-GC is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and the European Union.