On October 18, 2023, the pro-Al-Qaeda Jaysh Al-Malahem Al-Electroni (Electronic Army of Epic Battles) media outlet published a six-page booklet titled “How to Fight Alongside My People in Gaza”, as the “second addendum” to its Wolves of Manhattan magazine. The booklet contains a list of recommendations for courses of action supporting Gazans in their jihad against Israel and Jews, intended for “any brother” who wants to help “his people in Palestine,” despite the “tawaghit” [un-Islamic rulers] trying to divide them, reports MEMRI.
The booklet opens by presenting an Islamic hadith, according to which the prophet Muhammad instructed Muslims to wage jihad against “polytheists” with their “money, lives, and tongues”. After urging “every brother” to “fight alongside his brothers in Palestine” without excuses, the booklet lists possible ways of doing so, detailing them according to the categories presented in the hadith.
With respect to material support, the booklet presents two possible courses of action: “sending money to mujahideen and people in Palestine, as there are many trustworthy and safe ways [to do so]”, and “arming and equipping [of] any brother who wants to carry out a martyrdom-seeking [suicide] operation against Jews and their Crusader allies anywhere in the world”.
Next, the booklet details ways to support the battle “with lives”, including:
“attacking Jews in any country in the world, and in particular tourists in Arab and Islamic countries”; “focus[ing] on displaced Jews who have fled the occupation country recently, as abusing them is more effective than abusing others… look[ing] for Jewish families in your neighborhood and area, and assault[ing] them with firearms, treading operations, or even knives, or grenades”.
Additional suggestions include: “attacking governmental Jewish facilities and interests in Arab and European countries, such as embassies and consulates”; “exhausting Jews’ money by burning their houses, automobiles and stores around the world”; and “targeting governmental Crusader facilities in America and Europe, as their unlimited support of the Jewish occupiers is no longer hidden from anyone”.
In this context, the booklet warns: “Be careful as much as you can, my monotheist brother, to not harm their children. Our enemy is clear, and children are not on our list of enemies”.
The booklet describes three methods to “fight with your brothers in Gaza” by “tongue”: “inciting Muslims to support Palestine and wage war against Jews by publishing on social media platforms. We further urge you to spread this simple addendum as much as possible”; “opposing apostates among our people who show solidarity with Jews in light of the disaster the heroes of Palestine inflicted on them, and equalize between our people in Palestine and the Jewish occupiers”; and “preaching to your family and environment, and reminding them that Palestine and Bayt Al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] is the Muslims’ topmost cause, and that supporting it is a personal duty on all of us”.
The booklet also contains an excerpt by slain Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri calling for jihad against Israel and its allies, and a page devoted to the October 8 shooting at an archeological site in Alexandria, Egypt, in which two Israeli tourists were killed and a third injured. Referring to it as “the blessed Alexandria operation,” the booklet states: “This was the beginning. Who will complete the path?”
Jaysh Al-Malahem Al-Electroni is an unofficial pro-Al-Qaeda media group which began its activity in April 2020 and fell inactive in May 2022, only to resurface on October 12, 2023 with a statement celebrating the Hamas offensive and calling to target Jews in Muslim countries.
Since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, statements celebrating the offensive against Israel and inciting jihad against Jews have been issued by Al-Qaeda’s central command, as well as by several affiliates.
