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It was one of the earliest Islamist militant groups in the Middle East. It first came to prominence with the April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut.

Several groups in other Arab countries also go by the name Islamic Jihad, notably the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In the western world, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad is the organization usually meant by the term Islamic Jihad, due to the widespread media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The name is also occasionally used by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Islamic Jihad has used teenagers as suicide bombers. On 29 March 2004, 16-year-old Tamer Havira in Rifidia, an Arab suburb of Shechem was apprehended by Israeli security forces as he prepared to carry out a suicide attack.

Like Hamas, Islamic Jihad and its top leaders have been frequent targets of assassination.

See also:

• JihadJihad is an Arabic word which comes from the Arabic root word "jahada"; which means "exerting utmost effort" or "to strive. The word connotes a wide range of meanings, from an inward spiritual struggle to attain perfect faith to an outward material strugg
• TerrorismTerrorism refers to the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of achieving a political, religious or socio-economic goal. Terrorist acts can be carried out by individuals or groups, and are sometimes sponsored by governments as an alternat
• Islamic Terrorism
• Anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism alternatively antisemitism is hostility towards Jews. It ranges from ad hoc antagonism towards Jews on an individual level to the institutionalized prejudice and persecution once prevalent in European societies, of which the highly explicit