Activists belonging to militant, zealous Islamic groups of the Jihadi Salafi ideological movement have recently launched a series of sabotage attacks in Gaza, including on Hamas’ facilities. For now these groups – which unlike the nonviolent Salafi Da’wah movement – champion violent terrorism, do not pose a threat to Hamas’ regime in Gaza, nonetheless they have become a serious nuisance and are disrupting the rule of law and order in the Strip.

The Muslim activists have a similar worldview as the terrorists who are operating in the Sinai Peninsula and belong to militant organizations such as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (“Supporters of Jerusalem”) and Jundallah (“soldiers of God”), which are affiliated with the Islamic State.

Their activities in Gaza have included so far placing explosive devices near Hamas’ and UNRWA’s welfare and employment facilities; placing bombs near the home of Fathi Hamad, former Hamas Interior Minister, and near Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ former villa. The militants have also threatened to expend their operations and attack Hamas officials in Gaza, whom they view as traitors and heretics. Recent incidents of missile launching into Israel are also believed to be part of their operations.

Hamas’ security services are retaliating with full force. One of the militants’ leaders, radical Salafist imam, Adnan Khader Maya, from Bureij Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, was arrested by Hamas after attacking the regime and affiliating himself with IS. 30 additional activists were arrested and some 30 others were declared ‘wanted’ by the internal security services. Hamas has also destroyed a mosque visited by those militants.

The radicals are operating against a background of a dispute that begun more than seven years ago, when Hamas rose to power in Gaza. Jihadi Salafi activists in Gaza helped at the time Hamas to drive out Fatah officials out of the Strip and forced hundreds of the Palestinian Authority supporters to escape to Ramallah. In exchange for their help, the radical activists demanded that the Sharia law would become the sole, official constitution of the regime in Gaza, similarly to the way IS imposed the Islamic law in Iraq and Syria.

Read the article in full at i24 News.