(Globe and Mail-Canada) Patrick Martin - In April, Vittorio Arrigoni, an Italian activist, was abducted and murdered in Gaza by a small group of men who demanded the release from Hamas prison of a leading Salafi-Jihadist. It turned out that two of the three perpetrators were members of Hamas' own security forces - one a policeman, the other a member of Hamas' own Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades. This is "the real danger," says Ayman Batniji, an imam at Gaza's Shohada al-Aqsa Mosque and spokesman for the Hamas police - "those inside Hamas' military wing that are loyal to the [Salafi-Jihadist] views." Such people are believed to have been responsible for a series of attacks on UN summer camps last year, and for setting fire to a Gaza water park.
2011-05-31 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive