Report: Islamic Jihad to hold historic elections

The Islamic Jihad movement will hold elections for a new leadership for the first time since it was established in the 80s, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday, citing sources in Gaza and the West Bank.

The elections will be held in the next few weeks in the same method the Fatah and Hamas movements held their elections.

According to the report, the terror group's decision stemmed from major disagreements between the movement's leaders in Gaza over general policies, relations with Hamas and Fatah and "resistance" to Israel.

Sources told the newspaper that Jihad leaders such as Abdullah Shami and Abu Hazm al-Najar were among those who supported the effort to expand the movement's role within Palestinian society as opposed to focusing solely on the "armed struggle" against Israel.

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