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al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Palestine)

كتائب شهداء الأقصى, (al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades)

image by Eugene Ipavec, 06 Sep 2005

Description
Introduction
White field version
Other variant flags
Lion's Den militia

See also:

Description

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade uses a yellow flag with a circular emblem. [photo]
Albert Kirsch, 14 Nov 2004

The flag is vertical and yellow, with a black emblem depicting two crossed AK-47s over the Dome of the Rock, all surrounded by two extremely long Palestinian flags. There is an arc of Arabic text below, and another above. In logos the topmost element is usually a hand grenade; here it is a dome-like latticework.
Eugene Ipavec and Nathan Lamm, 27 Apr 2007

Introduction

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades is the generic name for armed groups which have no organizational hierarchy, most of which are independent and composed of young Fatah and Palestinian security force operatives. To a certain extent it can be said that each group is unique and has its own leadership. The AAMB officially began operations in October 2000, during the first days of the second intifada, as a network of military squads affiliated with Fatah. Several years later internal disputes led to the appearance of local groups is Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip with various names. In 2007 Mahmoud Abbas issued a “presidential” edict for the dismantling of the AAMB. In July 2007, 178 operatives agreed to disarm and turn their weapons over to PA as part of what was known as “the agreement of the wanted [operatives].” Later agreements in 2007 and 2008 added more gunmen to the list of those granted amnesty in exchange for ending violence, eventually bringing the total to over 300, despite of the fact that on August 22, 2007 they announced that they were backing out of its commitment and promise to refrain from attacks against Israel and the Israeli backed amnesty deal due to the IDF's arrest of two militants who were supposed to be on the amnesty list and shortly after backing out of the amnesty deal and its promise of stopping to attack Israel that Al Aqsa agreed to a month earlier, al-Aqsa gunmen in Gaza have announced that they are starting to launch hundreds of rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns and cities and named the campaign, "Hole in the Wall II." That officially ended the organization’s existence in Judea and Samaria. After the official dismantling of the AAMB, operatives established independent squads which carried out individual operations. AAMB operatives lacked a central command, were often persecuted by the Palestinian security forces and many of them were detained by the PA.

In 2010 an agreement was formulated between the AAMB and Israel through the PA, according to which the names of operatives would be crossed off the list of wanted terrorists in return for their abandoning violence and turning their weapons over to the PA. Most of them were absorbed by the security forces, while others kept their weapons and were sought by the PA.
Sources: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3433924,00.html (published August 5, 2007),
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/123470 (published on August 23, 2007) and
https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/al-aqsa-martyrs-brigades-a-generic-name-for-the-armed-squads-of-palestinian-terrorists-currently-active-in-judea-and-samaria/ (published on October 30, 2022)
Esteban Rivera, 9 January 2024

White field version

image located by William Garrison, 13 October 2023

A white-field flag of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades" unit in Palestine; c. 2005. The top two Arabic lines read in English: "May Allah/God punish them [Allah deniers] at your hands, reword them [Allah's supporters], grant you victory, and harden the hearts of the nationalist people who fought them." In the middle is the logo of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades". The bottom two lines read: "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades" and finally "Revolution until Victory." There is a hidden flag-pole sleeve on the right side of this flag. [In Jerusalem, the silver dome of the larger "Al-Aqsa Mosque" or "al-Masjid al-Aqsa" should not be confused with the nearby northward golden "Dome of the Rock" or "Qubbat as-Sakhra" that is used in its logo. Both the mosque and the Sakhra sit atop the overall flatened hilltop "Temple Mount" or "al-Haram al-Sharif" esplanade -- but known more popularly as the "Al-Aqsa mosque compound" or more simply just as "al-Masjid al-Aqsa". Phyically, the "Al-Aqsa Mosque" contains a large indoor praying area (primarily for men), whereas the interior of the "Qubbat as-Sakhra" is much smaller (where Muslim women may pray), and essentially just encloses a small hilltop rock from where the Muslim Prophet Mohammed is believed to have ascended into Heaven ("Jannah") and returned during his historic "Night Journey" or "Al-Isra' wal-Mi'raj". While Muslims may pray in the Sakhra, it itself is not a mosque/masjid.]
William Garrison, 13 October 2023

Logo

image located by William Garrison, 13 October 2023

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Martyrs%27_Brigades

Other variant flags

image located by William Garrison, 11 December 2023

In the middle of this square, yellow-field flag is a large logo of the "al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades". The top black Arabic slogan is part of the Muslim "Declaration of Faith" shahada that reads in English as: "There is no deity/god but Allah". The bottom black slogan reads: "Mohammad is the messenger of Allah." As seen in Gaza City, 17 July 2006.
Source: https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/islamic-jihad-palestinian-supporters-demonstrate-holding-news-photo/1645161213?adppopup=true

image located by William Garrison, 9 January 2024

A white-field flag of the "Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Bridge: Missile Unit"; c. 2005, Above the dome and in between the AK-47 rifles, there is a black rocket/missile with a book (most likely the "Holy Quran" with the Arabic words "Allah" on the right page and "Mohammad" on the left page). There is a hidden flag-pole sleeve at left side (hoist).
William Garrison, 9 January 2024

Lion's Den militia

image located by William Garrison, 20 September 2022

Source: https://twitter.com/JoeTruzman or see original article at the online "Foundation for Defense of Democracies" https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2022/09/19/newly-established-militant-organization/

A Twitter user reported that a "flag was found on" a Palestinian militant allegedly belonging to a new Palestinian group titled either "Lion's Den" or "The Lion's Den". While the group purportedly operates in the "West Bank", the individual possessing the flag was arrested in Jaffa, Israel. While the flag itself was not shown, its design might be inferred from the logo on the group's purported headband.

"Lion's Den" logo -- may be on their flag or its flag may look like its "Lion's Den" headband with its full name.
Bill Garrison, 20 September 2022

From this link, here's the following: "Additionally, it remains unclear if TLD (The Lion's Den) is a splinter organization of an established militant group such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. However, there are some clues that suggest their affiliation to al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
On several occasions, TLD has published its logo with the picture of two militants killed in late July, Muhammed al-Azizi and Abdul Subh, both members of the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Furthermore, TLD said in a statement published on Sep. 3 that Azizi and Subh were its founding members. The evidence suggests TLD is following the same pattern of other sub groups that have been formed this year who are affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad or al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Esteban Rivera, 20 September 2022

image located by William Garrison, 16 October 2022

A photo of the "Lion's Den" or "Den of Lions" flag: source: https://www.timesofisrael.com
The white-field flag with multi-color logo of the "Lion's Den" or "Den of Lions" militia, in Nablus (West Bank/Palestine) c. Sept. 2022.
William Garrison, 16 October 2022

A larger, clearer logo can be seen on the shoulder of a member:
Image at https://ecfr.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Lions-Den-2-1024xcenter-c-default.jpg, source: https://ecfr.eu/special/mapping_palestinian_politics/lions-den/
Bill Garrison, 17 October 2022

images located by William Garrison, 20 October 2022

First image at https://www.economist.com/1843/2023/07/07/inside-the-lions-den-the-west-banks-gen-z-fighters (subscription needed).
Second image at https://allisrael.com/what-is-lions-den-the-new-start-up-palestinian-terror-cell c. Oct. 2022
Lion's Den flag in front of the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem (Photo: Twitter)
William Garrison, 20 October 2022

image located by William Garrison, 1 August 2024

Source: https://3sjshop.com/products/lions-den-palestine-flag/

A vertical, white-field flag of "The Lions Den" militia [Arabic: عرين الأسود, romanized: 'Arin al-'Usud]. [Lion = الأسود = asad or al-'Usud; "al-" = "The".] This militia emerged in early 2022, and takes its moniker from Ibrahim al-Nablusi, a prominent militant from Nablus, Palestine (West Bank), who was nicknamed "The Lion of Nablus"; he was killed in an Israeli raid in August 2022. The "lion" represents a strong protector. Some members are associated with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, and disaffected members of Fatah. Regarding the flag: near the top is the basic Islamic "Declaration of Faith" ("shahada"), the group's logo, and the group's name in white Arabic lettering inside the black Crescent Moon. Regarding the logo: it shows two AK-47 rifles framing/protecting the Muslim "Golden Dome" {"al-Aqsa Shrine"} atop the Temple Mount {"Haram al-Sharif"} in Jerusalem, with to the left of the dome a small outline map of a "Greater Palestine" – within this map there is a militiaman defensively standing before the "Golden Dome" and holding both an AK-47 in his lower hand and in his upper hand (near his head) twirling a slingshot (to defend the site from allegedly encroaching Israelis}. A knife/bayonet appears behind the middle of the crescent-moon, and the group's name is in white Arabic lettering inside the black Crescent Moon. The militia's name is repeated again in black-lettered Arabic below the crescent-moon.

For those unaccustomed with Arabic, Arabic is usually written without vowels. Because it includes vowel markings (diacritics or "tashkil"), the bottom black Arabic script looks slightly "fancier" than the non-vowel, white Arabic script; but both read the same: 'Arin al-'Usud or "den of the lions" or "The Lions' Den". Why is the fancier bottom script included – perhaps just to balance/match the top fancy-looking, vowel-included shahada script. A hidden flag-pole sleeve is along the right hoist side. [The significance of the depiction of the slingshot is that in the Old Testament the short, young Israelite David armed with a simple slingshot defeated the much-larger, sword-wielding warrior named Goliath -- whose Philistine tribe was invading from Canaan. Today, the Palestinians have re-imaged this story to defend their use of slingshots against Israeli soldiers as the Palestinians perceive that they are the modern version of being small insurgents against the "occupying" colossus Israel.]
William Garrison, 1 August 2022

Detail of logo

image located by William Garrison, 1 August 2024

This enlarged log shows the militiaman inside the map.

It is commonplace for these organizations (i.e. al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades, Hamas and even the Lion's Den) to feature crossed assault rifles. Now, after studying them closely for quite a while now, I've come to the conclusion that the rifles featured are not AK-47s, not AR-15s and not even M-16s (the latter, a derivative of the original design, the AR-15s). The weapon featured is the silhouette of a Carlo (derived from the Carl Gustav Swedish manufacturer of assault weapons).

The following pictures show actual modified and/or inspired by AR-15s design and parts, and since this was one of the first autochthonous weapons against what they call "Zionist occupation", it is more likely
that this is the inspiration for their logo:
https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/404805 and
https://www.fresh.co.il/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=581674.

Additional information on this weapon is located here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_(submachine_gun)

Esteban Rivera, 3 August 2024