This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Abd Al Aziz Awda,[a] also known as Sheik Awda (born 1946 or 20 December 1950),[6] is a Palestinian cleric who, along with Fathi Shaqaqi, founded the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, also known as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Islamist paramilitary organization based in Damascus, Syria.

Upon his return to Gaza in 1981, Awda became an imam at a mosque, where he promoted "Islam, jihad, and Palestine", leading to his arrest for incitement in 1984 and his deportation in 1987 during the prelude to the First Intifada.

A little over eight years later, on 20 February 2003, Awda and seven other high-ranking PIJ members were charged by a grand jury based in Tampa, Florida with racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder and provide material support to terrorists, and numerous Travel Act violations.

[11] Awda's family was originally from the Beersheba district in southern Mandatory Palestine, and came to Gaza in 1948, living in the Jabalia refugee camp.

[28] These difficulties forced the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's leadership, including Awda, to meet in the homes of sympathizers, most importantly that of Mahmud al-Khawaja,[31] who would go on to direct the PIJ's militant activities.

[32] Beginning in August 1983, when PIJ members murdered a yeshiva student in Hebron, resulting in mass arrests and Awda's banning from the IUG campus, he and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad became the focus of greater scrutiny from the Israeli government.

[34] After a series of clashes between the Israeli Defense Forces and six PIJ members, beginning with their escape from prison on 18 May 1987 and ending with their deaths in Shuja'iyya on 6 October, Awda praised them and called on his fellow Palestinians to follow the principle of martyrdom.

[8] After Awda and Shaqaqi's deportation, the two moved the PIJ's headquarters to Beirut, Lebanon, assisted by the Iranian embassy and members of Hezbollah.

[47] In a column in al-Mujahid, a PIJ-produced periodical,[48] published on 12 March 1993, Awda indirectly criticized Shaqaqi's sidelining of other founding members, referencing how Muhammad's companions were involved in his decision-making, making the whole group feel like equals.

[53] The indictment of Omar Abdel-Rahman and eleven others issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York referred to Awda as a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and New York City landmark bomb plot, having met with indicted and later convicted plotters Mahmud Abouhalima, Clement Rodney Hampton-El, and El Sayyid Nosair on 3 January 1989,[3] and Abdel-Rahman himself at Kennedy International Airport whilst traveling to a conference in Chicago in 1990.

[55] On 20 February 2003, Awda was one of eight people, including Al-Arian, al-Khatib, and Shalah, charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for their roles in the PIJ.