Led by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving life sentences for murder in Israel, it gained prominence during the Second Intifada.
Tanzim has also recruited female suicide bombers, including Andaleeb Takatka, a 20-year-old Bethlehem woman who detonated an explosive belt at a Jerusalem bus stop in April 2002, killing six Israeli civilians, and injuring sixty.
[citation needed] Marwan Barghouti, widely described as heading Tanzim, explicitly condemned terror attacks within Israel, writing "While I, and the Fatah movement to which I belong, strongly oppose attacks and the targeting of civilians inside Israel, our future neighbor, I reserve the right to protect myself, to resist the Israeli occupation of my country and to fight for my freedom.
"[3][better source needed] At the beginning of the Second Intifada, Hussein Abayat, leader of Tanzim in Beit Sahur, was killed in a helicopter attack by the IDF on 9 November 2000.
[4][6] On 15 February 2015, the Israeli army arrested Jamal Abu Lel, charging that he was "the head of" the Tanzim "terrorist organization," running it from the Qalandiya refugee camp while carrying an Israeli permanent resident identity card[7] due to his residing in Kfar Aqab, on the other side of the Jerusalem Airport from Qalandiya.