The officials believe it is only a matter of time before ISIS claims responsibility for attacks in Gaza. They further point to debates on ISIS-affiliated Internet forums discussing the timing of declaring the Gaza Strip part of a larger Islamic caliphate that would also encompass the neighboring Sinai Peninsula in Egypt.
In a major escalation, Islamist Salafists last Monday planted a bomb on Hamas’s security headquarters in Gaza City, damaging a peripheral wall of the central structure.
Hours earlier, Gazan Salafists posted an online message threatening to “act against chosen targets” if Hamas did not release Islamist prisoners within 72 hours. The Salafists were particularly incensed about an arrest last month of an Islamic leader said to support ISIS ideology.
Middle Eastern defense officials said Hamas had been preparing a major crackdown on Salafist cells supportive of ISIS ideology, fearing the group could make a declaration of control over Gaza.
Asked by this journalist for comment on the report, Mushir al Masri, a member of Hamas’’s parliament and a media spokesman for the group, denied ISIS was even present in the Gaza Strip.
“This is not the first time Israeli and Western media tried to pit us against ISIS. There is no truth to these claims, and ISIS is not in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Masri further clarified that “anyone caught breaking the law will be dealt with just like all lawbreakers according to the criminal justice system in Gaza.”