A terror organization active in the Gaza Strip, which serves as a comprehensive framework for terror cells from various organizations. It originated in local defense committees, which were formed at the beginning of the Second Intifada (September 2000) to protect residents from the possibility of an Israeli incursion into central Palestinian cities. In the city of Rafah, Jamal Abu Samahadana, a senior Fatah field activist (and former Palestinian Islamic Jihad activist), headed the defense committees, and was instrumental in turning them into a fighting militia, which he called the “Popular Resistance Committees.” In early 2001, Abu Samahadana announced his retirement from Fatah owing to what he considered its overly moderate stance toward Israel, and at the same time worked to connect the PRC to Lebanese terror elements, including the Hizbullah and Iran, from whom he received funding for his organization’s terror activity. The “successes” of the PRC in terror attacks using IEDs (improvised explosive devices) against Israeli forces in the southern Gaza Strip, attracted activists from other Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The organization grew, and gradually its activity was widened within the Gaza Strip beyond Rafah, to include the central and northern Gaza Strip. Abu Samahadana attempted to expand the PRC activity into the West Bank as well, without much success. Over the years, and especially following the death of Abu Samahadana (June 2006), the PRC split into a number of factions. Some of these broke off and became independent entities, such as the “Army of Islam" whose activists were involved in the attack near Kerem Shalom (June 2006), during which the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. Today two rival factions of the PRC are active and operate under this name. The central faction (southern), which is larger in both membership and scope of its terrorist activity; and the northern faction, which is smaller. The northern faction, led by Zakaria Dughmoush, is entirely subject to Hamas, from whom it receives instructions and funding. During the Second Intifada, the activists of the PRC figured prominently in massive explosives attacks against Israeli tanks in the Gaza Strip, and they also participated in high-trajectory fire (rockets and mortar fire) toward Israel. Activists of the PRC also cooperated with activists from other Palestinian factions in carrying out multi-organizational terror attacks against Israel.