The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) is buying weapons and loyalty in the West Bank using Iranian money, a Palestinian security source said.

The PIJ has established several armed cells and recruited dozens of gunmen in the northern West Bank, specifically in Jenin and Nablus. “The PIJ has become a dominant force in the northern West Bank, largely thanks to the financial aid it receives from Iran," a source told Israel's Jerusalem Post. “Islamic Jihad is using Iranian money to buy weapons and loyalty in the West Bank [and] the organization is paying high salaries to its members.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad has stepped up its activity over the last year, largely thanks to extra funding from Tehran, including an incident in April in which dozens of rockets were launched in a cross border attack on Israel from Gaza, Syria and Lebanon. Last August, the PIJ unleashed almost 2,000 rockets and mortars in three days of fighting.

The PIJ, like Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, have become full-fledged Iranian proxies, receiving Iranian funding, training, sophisticated equipment, and, most importantly, Tehran’s instructions on their confrontation with Israel. Last year, then defense minister Benny Gantz claimed that the PIJ was receiving tens of millions of dollars from Tehran. This week the group's leaders met with President Raisi, among others, in a show of force against Israel.

The evolution from guerrilla-terrorist militias to armies results from a long process initiated by Tehran with the active assistance of Hezbollah in Lebanon. The escalating events in recent months have shown the ongoing coordination and consultation among the top leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ in Beirut, Damascus, and Tehran, with the aim of creating a united front facing Israel from Iran-supported Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank.