The Popular Resistance Committees - Definition and Overview

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The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) are a Palestinian militant network which operates in the Gaza Strip. The PRC are regarded as terrorist organizations by Israel and the United States. The PRC is composed from ex-Fatah militants combined with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades activists. The PRC is specilized in planting roadside bombs and vehicle explosive charges - directed against military and civilian convoys in the Gaza Strip.

The PRC is said to be responsible for planting the explosives (some weighted more than 150kg) which destroyed 4 Israeli tanks and a US diplomatic convoy. (Attacking diplomats is a violation of the laws and customs of war). Following the attack on the American convoy, the USA demanded that the Palestinian Authority will find those responsible and bring them into justice. Palestinian officials say that because of lack of progress in the attack's investigation, the USA halted financial support for the PA and casted unofficial sanction over its accounts. Recently, after heavy US pressure, the PA tried 4 suspects in a Palestinian military court, but intelligence agencies dismissed the tribunal as a "mock trial" and said the suspects indeed were PRC activists, but not those responsible for the attack. The suspects were released in March 2004, less than one year after the attack against the US diplomatic convoy that killed three Americans.

The PRC are also involved in Rafah's smuggling tunnels which are using to smuggle weapons, explosives, drugs, fugitives, prostitutes, cigarettes etc.

On May 2, 2004, the PRC murdered an Israeli pregnant mother, Tali Hatuel, and her four daughters in Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip.[1] (http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=6772). She was an unarmed civilian resident of the Gush Katif Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip.