('Palestinian fighters'), who targeted Israeli troops and "traitors." This network operated until 1989, with their most famous operation being the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers: Avi Sasportas and Ilan Saadon. Hamas was officially established soon after, on 14 December 1987, forming other similar networks as al-Mujahidun al-Filastiniun, such as the Abdullah Azzam Brigades. In mid-1991, in during the First Palestinian Intifada (1987-1994), the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades was established to provide Hamas with a paramilitary capability, thereafter becoming known as the armed branch of Hamas. Contemporary operations and activities The international community, and more specifically the United Nations, considers the practice of war combatants to turn civilians into human shields as a violation of the Geneva Conventions standards of war, and considers indiscriminate attacks (e.g., by rockets or suicide bombers) on civilian populations as illegal under international law. The IQB's transition into a recognised militant organisation began during the establishment of the Oslo Accords to assist Hamas efforts in blocking them. In 2003 and 2004, the Brigades in Gaza resisted incursions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including the siege of Jabalya in October 2004. However, these battles took a heavy toll in the IQB's ranks, which suffered heavy losses. The group, however, continued to gain strength and remained capable of carrying out attacks in the following years. The Brigades can count on a large pool of people willing to join them , smuggle in supplies and provide the fighters with homemade weapons such as the al-Bana, the Batar, the Yasin and the Qassam rocket. In early 2005, the Al-Qassam Brigades appeared to stand by a truce negotiated between the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority. However the Brigades took advantage of the truce to regroup. Following Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in August 2005, the Al-Qassam Brigades staged several rallies in which they displayed thousands of fighters and an assortment of weaponry in Gaza. These celebrations ended abruptly when, on 23 September, twenty Palestinians were killed as a car carrying Qassam rockets exploded among a dense crowd. Since this incident, the brigades refrained from staging public displays of force as well as launching attacks at Israel, which, in turn, refrained from targeting Hamas members in assassinations and raids. Despite occasional and brief flare-ups of violence, the brigades generally respected this truce until the beginning of June 2006. The Palestinian Authority has been, during this period,