Upon the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, however, the Free Palestine Movement formed its own militias and openly fought for the Ba'athist government against various rebel groups until the fall of the Assad regime in 2024.

[5] After the Syrian Civil War's start, the Free Palestine Movement began to recruit for pro-government militias and founded its own paramilitary wing, the "Al-Aqsa Shield Forces" in 2012.

According to this agreement Yasser Qashlaq paid Fatah al-Intifada a substantial sum for handing over parts of their frontline at the Yarmouk Camp to the Free Palestine Movement.

In consequence, Yasser and his movement could gain "valuable political capital" as defenders of Yarmouk which is of great symbolic importance to the Palestinian diaspora, while Fatah al-Intifada got much-needed funds.

[2] Since then, the Free Palestine Movement mostly fought the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants in Yarmouk Camp,[10] notably participating in the Southern Damascus offensives of March[11][12] and April and May 2018.

In a notable incident in May 2013, the "Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni Battalions", another armed group affiliated with the movement, fired two mortar shells at Israel Defense Forces positions on Mount Hermon.

[24] When an Irish parliamentary delegation visited Yarmouk Camp in late July 2018 to evaluate the damage caused by the years-long combat, it was accompanied by Saed Abd Al-Aal.

[26] At some point in early 2019, the Free Palestine Movement sent detachments to take part in counter-insurgency operations in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, and contributed troops to the Northwestern Syria offensive (April–August 2019).

[35] After the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, the Syrian transitional government demanded that all Palestinian armed groups in Syria disarm themselves, dissolve their military formations, and instead focus on political and charitable work.

[1][15] Saed Abd Al-Aal is the son of Muhammad Abdel-Al, a member of the leadership of the Ba'ath Party's Palestinian branch in Syria and former Yarmouk Camp official.

[19] Like other pro-government militias in Syria, the Free Palestine Movement reportedly attracts new recruits with relatively high monthly salaries, as many young Syrian Palestinians are in precarious economic conditions due to the civil war and mass unemployment.

[40] According to local activists, the Free Palestine Movement is also involved in criminal business schemes which pressured residents of Yarmouk Camp to sell property under value to make way for a major reconstruction plan of the cityscape.