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Sveriges Radio · 2015-07-15
After expanding in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the Sinai Peninsula, the Islamic State has turned its attention toward the Gaza Strip, threatening in a recent video to overthrow Hamas while extremists in Gaza have declared loyalty to IS. Yet many Gaza residents strongly reject the group, and local militias say they are prepared to confront it, while Omar Shaban says Hamas can still control these radicals for now, though deepening poverty and isolation raise doubts about how long that will last.
After expanding in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the Sinai Peninsula, the Islamic State has turned its attention toward the Gaza Strip, threatening in a recent video to overthrow Hamas while extremists in Gaza have declared loyalty to IS. Yet many Gaza residents strongly reject the group, and local milit…
After its advances in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the Sinai Peninsula, the Islamic State is setting its sights on the Palestinian Gaza Strip. In a recent video, IS threatens to overthrow the Hamas movement that controls Gaza, and extremists in the territory have declared their loyalty to IS. But among Gaza’s residents, hostility toward IS is strong, and the militias present in the territory are on guard.
A worker shovels rubble out of a hole in the wall of a bullet-riddled house. This area, Shuja'iyya in Gaza City, was one of the hardest hit in last summer’s war. Now, one year later, reconstruction has barely begun. Neither Israel nor Hamas wants a new war right now, but instead another threat to Gaza has loomed up—the terrorist group Islamic State, IS. Khalid Sukr, who still lives in his half-destroyed house in Shuja'iyya, does not want to see IS in Gaza.
“No one here likes the Islamic State. We do not want them here; they bring only violence and destruction,” he says.
Recently, the Islamic State published a video condemning Hamas rule in Gaza and threatening to overthrow the “tyrants.” Hamas is also an Islamist movement, and designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union, but according to IS it is far too tolerant and liberal.
Before this video appeared, several smaller bomb attacks had been directed at Hamas targets in Gaza, and rockets had been fired at Israel despite the current ceasefire. Suspicion is directed at extremists in Gaza who have declared their loyalty to IS and are challenging Hamas on its home ground.
“I hope Hamas can control them. We have seen what the Islamic State does in other countries,” says Khalid Sukr.
On a sandy hill near the border with Israel lies a training camp belonging to the Nasir Salah al-Din Brigades, one of Gaza’s many armed militias. The spokesman Abu Ataya, a young man in camouflage uniform with his face concealed by a Palestinian keffiyeh, says that his forces are ready to confront the threat from the Islamic State if it tries to penetrate Gaza. But he also offers cooperation.
“This does not apply only to IS; any group that wants to come to Gaza to help us in the struggle against Israel is welcome here. But if they come to attack us Palestinians—then we will deal with them appropriately. If they shoot at us, we will shoot at them,” he says.
In Gaza, there is not the religious and ethnic division that has contributed to the collapse of states where IS has expanded. But society in Gaza has radicalized during the growing isolation and poverty of the past decade. For now, Hamas can keep the IS extremists under control, but the question is for how long, says Omar Shaban of the independent think tank PalThink in Gaza.
“Hamas is still strong enough to control the radical groups—but the question is for how long? People do not have food for the day.”
Tomas Härenstam, Gaza
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