The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA, , Jaysh at-Tahrir al-Filastini) is ostensibly the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), set up at the 1964 Arab League summit held in Alexandria, Egypt, with the mission of fighting Israel. However, it has never been under effective PLO control, but rather it has been controlled by its various host governments, usually Syria. Even though it initially operated in several countries, the present-day PLA is only active in Syria and recruits male Palestinian refugees. History Foundation and early operations Immediately after its creation at the 1964 Arab League summit in Alexandria, the PLO (then headed by Ahmad Shukeiri) was effectively under the control of the Arab states, especially Nasser's Egypt. The Palestinians would not gain independent control of the organization until Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction wrested it from Nasser-backed Palestinians in 1968–69. Accordingly, the PLA was officially set up in 1964 as the PLO's armed wing despite lacking an actual operation link to the PLO. In reality, the PLA was created by Nasser as an "auxiliary formation". It was staffed by Palestinian refugees under the control of the host countries, who would perform their military service in these units instead of in their host countries' regular armed forces. Formally, the PLA fell under the command of the PLO's Military Department, but in practice, none of the governments involved relinquished control of the brigades. From an early point, the PLA became especially influenced by Syria. The PLA was originally organized into three brigades, named after historic battles: Ayn Jalut, based in Gaza, then administered by Egypt Qadisiyyah, originally based in Iraq, but transferred to Jordan in 1967; it passed under syrian control in 1971 Hattin, based in Syria The PLA was relatively well equipped and trained, and even fielded armour. Its materiel mostly originated in the Soviet Union. However, the three PLA brigades remained under-strength until the 1980s. The PLA was never deployed in the form of a single fighting unit for the PLO, but instead elements were utilized as an auxiliary and support force by its controller governments. PLA brigades fought in the Six-Day War of 1967 as part of the Egyptian and Syrian militaries. In 1968, the Popular Liberation Forces (Arabic: quwwat at-tahrir ash-sha'biyya), better known as the "Yarmouk Brigade", were established within the framework of the PLA to perform commando actions against Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, occupied by Israeli