Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

In 1969, after a power struggle with his leader George Habash, Najib Hawatmeh left the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He and other left-wing PFLP members split to form the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a marginal group that has made multiple small attacks on Israeli targets.

The DFLP began as a Marxist-Leninist organization with the goal of creating an independent Palestinian state though a revolution of the masses. The group cultivated relationships with radical organizations and Communist parties in the Middle East.

The DFLP committed its most notorious act of terror in 1974, when members attacked a school in Maalot, a town in northern Israel, and killed 20 teenagers. In 1983, the group kidnapped Israeli Army sergeant Samir Assad. Press reports later delighted in reporting that a female DFLP member had caught Assad in a “honey ...