Hamas continues to target Salafi jihadists in Gaza

A new statement from the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center announces that Hamas members recently raided the home of a “mujahid” in the Popular Resistance Committees’ (PRC) Al Nasser Salah al Deen Brigades. The statement, which was uploaded to jihadist forums as well as the Center’s Facebook and Tumblr pages, says that the home was located in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas members, according to the statement, “searched the house and tampered with its contents.” The statement further charged that the raid was part of a continuing campaign by Hamas against the “Mujahideen.” According to the statement, the campaign appears to be expanding “day by day,” and the PRC is expected to release an official statement on the incident.

Today Hamas also arrested two Salafi jihadists in the town of Zawaida, according to the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center. Earlier this week, a statement from the Ibn Taymiyyah Media Center accused Hamas of kidnapping a Salafi jihadist in the Rafah area for the first time in approximately a month.

On Feb. 22, Abdullah Jihad al Ashqar (a.k.a. Abu al-Muhtasib al Maqdisi), an official in the Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (MSC), slammed the arrests of Salafi jihadists in the Gaza Strip by Hamas. According to al Ashqar, after Abu al Walid al Maqdisi and Ashraf al Sabah were killed in an air strike by the Israeli Air Force in October, Hamas eased up its pressure of Salafi jihadists in the Gaza Strip.

In fact, in early December, Hamas reportedly released Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of a Salafi jihadist group known as Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation).

However, after a few months “the policy of detaining returned, as did pursuing, kidnapping, and storming homes, and then capturing and torturing in the prisons of the so-called domestic security agency,” al Ashqar contended.

The alleged raid on the PRC member’s home and the recent arrests come at an interesting time, as early on March 21, the MSC, an al Qaeda-linked group, claimed credit for a rocket attack on Israel. In its statement, the MSC warned that their “attacks will continue” and that the ceasefire agreement that ended Operation Pillar of Defense in November, which it has previously said it was not a party to, “was over a long time ago.”

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