ISIS Followers Plan to Take over Gaza Strip

by Khaled Abu Toameh
January 12, 2016 at 5:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7209/isis-gaza-takeover

Translations of this item:

In the video produced by the pro-ISIS Palestinian Islamic Army (PIA), Hamas leaders are denounced for aligning themselves with moderate Arab leaders in the Gulf, who are described as "criminals and enemies of Islam."
Apparently, Hamas has been too kind to Christians living in the Gaza Strip. The narrator blasts Hamas leaders for offering greetings to Christians on their holidays.
It seems that there may be valid reasons for Egypt's reluctance to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, as well as to Israel's opposition to lifting the naval blockade on Gaza -- initiated to prevent weapons from being imported to Hamas and other extremists in Gaza. The PIA video provides proof that the Gaza Strip has become a hub for jihadi groups posing a murderous threat not only to Israel and "the West," but also to Muslims who are deemed by the terrorists as lacking in religious standards.

A new group calling itself the Palestinian Islamic Army (PIA) has popped up in the Gaza Strip, signaling incontrovertibly the growing influence of the Islamic State (ISIS) among Palestinians.

A thirty-minute video put out by the PIA shows its followers pledging allegiance to ISIS "Caliph" Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, and paints Hamas leaders as "apostates" and "infidels" for failing to implement Islamic sharia law in the Gaza Strip. The video constitutes proof positive that the ISIS ideology has infiltrated Gaza -- a truth that Hamas has unsuccessfully been trying to conceal for the past year.

A frame from the recent video produced in Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Army (PIA), in which the PIA followers pledge allegiance to ISIS "Caliph" Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

In the video, Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal are denounced for aligning themselves with moderate Arab leaders in the Gulf, who are described as "criminals and enemies of Islam." Apparently, Hamas has been too kind to Christians living in the Gaza Strip. The narrator blasts Hamas leaders for offering greetings to Christians on their holidays and condolences on the death of some of the community's members. Hamas leaders are featured making visits to Christian "polytheists" in the Strip.

Yet Christians are not the only bedfellows prohibited to Hamas by the PIA. The video also damns Hamas leaders for their alliance with the Shiite Muslims of Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah. For the PIA, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is a "Satan" waging war on Sunni Muslims. And this "Satan" is in good company: "The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip is a sect of apostasy and blasphemy," the PIA video declares. Muslims are urged vigorously to distance themselves from the heretical Hamas.

The PIA holds Hamas responsible for the deaths of 11 of its members in the Gaza Strip. "The Hamas members executed them in front of their mothers, and left the wounded to die after preventing ambulances from reaching them," the video charges. "One of those killed in this massacre was brother Saeb Abu Obaida, who was executed by Hamas in cold blood." According to the video, Abu Obaida was the "emir" of the PIA in the Gaza Strip.

One of the leaders and founders of the ISIS-affiliated PIA, Mu'taz Daghmash (known by his nickname Abu Al-Majd), was killed in an Israeli airstrike two years ago -- much to the satisfaction of Hamas. The video reveals that arch-terrorist Daghmash was involved in the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and the assassination of two Palestinian security commanders in the Gaza Strip -- Musa Arafat and Jad Tayeh.

A second jihadi mentioned in the video, Sultan Al-Harbi, is described as a senior member of ISIS who received military training in Yemen, Sudan and Libya before returning to the Gaza Strip. He too was killed last year in an Israeli airstrike.

Nidal Al-Ashi (aka Abu Huraira) was another PIA member in good standing, before becoming the first Palestinian to be killed in Syria while fighting for ISIS. Al-Ashi participated in multiple rocket attacks on "the enemies of Allah, the Jews," and attacks on churches and other Christian targets in Gaza, as well attacks as on Western journalists and diplomats.

Egyptian security officials have attested repeatedly that the Gaza Strip has become a major exporter of jihadis to Sinai. Events have proven those officials correct. It seems that there may be valid reasons for Egypt's reluctance to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, as well as to Israel's opposition to lifting the naval blockade on Gaza -- initiated to prevent weapons from being imported to Hamas and other extremists in the Gaza Strip. The PIA video provides definitive proof that the Gaza Strip has become a hub for jihadi groups posing a murderous threat not only to Israel and "the West," but also to Muslims who are deemed by the terrorists as lacking in religious standards.

Hamas has brought nothing but havoc to its people in the Gaza Strip. As for the Palestinian Authority and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, all that is left for them is to be grateful for the presence of Israel in the West Bank. Without the Israeli military, Hamas and ISIS would eat Abbas and his Palestinian Authority for breakfast. One wonders: Is this the sort of state that Palestinians are seeking to establish?

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem.

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Comment on this item

5 Reader Comments

Harvey • Jan 13, 2016 at 17:34

One has to wonder about the motives of the Western leaders wanting a two state solution. Isn't it bad enough they cannot even live with their fellow Muslims?

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Stan Lee • Jan 12, 2016 at 21:01

Major trouble ahead! ISIL is not filtering into Gaza on a pleasure tour, now the troubles start for both Egypt and Israel. If either nation waits for ISIL to make its move, ISIL will not act until it is militarily prepared as well as it can be with assurances of receiving military supplies.

Neither Egypt nor Israel should wait for ISIL to be well prepared, they should strike first and strike hard. They should synchronize their moves against ISIL forces and annihilate them. Neither nation should doubt the reason for ISIL's presence. Also, if ISIL is now solidifying its position in Gaza, and it's already in the Sinai, it now has the beginning of linked structure for the Sinai and Gaza. It will attempt creating a supply route using a waterway, most likely through the Sinai,smuggling via Red Sea.

I'm also concerned about Libya's instability and what faction has control there. Libya is on Egypt's western border, but if ISIL manages to seize power in Libya, there will be a war not about Gaza, but now the shooting could go from Lebanon/Syria across the coastline of Mediterranean North Africa involving Israel, Egypt, and Libya.

The U.S. news reporting is rotten, Obama's "bought and paid for" leftist press corps reports little to no comprehensive news to the American people. All the news we receive is Obama stating "the threat has been neutralized" or words to that effect.

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sherri palmer • Jan 12, 2016 at 18:44

Will be glad when the world takes over isis...hope it is sooner than later!

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Andrew H • Jan 12, 2016 at 09:57

The year 2016 could be enormously enhanced from an entertainment standpoint if Israel once and for all put an end to all the shenanigans in the Gaza by wiping out all the sick factions. The world would rejoice in a merciless cleanup of bad guys and their tunnels and their conspiracies and related maladies. Anything and anyone related to ISIS must be evaporated, eliminated, without even a trace of their ashes left. Israel is capable of such a move; it is simply a matter of Will.

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jeb • Jan 12, 2016 at 08:19

Filling children with the desire to hate and kill Jews coming back on Hamas. An acquaintance once told me when he was interviewed for a job and asked why he wanted it he said, "Because this job is the best at what it does and I want to work for the best." He didn't get the job, but I imagine that after raising a generation of Palestinian children to first and foremost hate Jews and kill them, lauding mere toddlers by dressing them like assassins posing them with weapons for the delight of the parents, may come back to bite Hamas in the neck.
As evil and malevolent and perverted as Hamas and its parent organization and friends of the US President Hamas is, the Daesh have them beat hands down in the hate murder category.
If I wanted to be a hate mongering murderer like my mommy and daddy adore, which group would I venerate more ? Hamas or the Daesh? It must be tough growing up and having to make those sorts of decisions.

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