This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.A number of Islamist groups opposed to Hamas have had a presence in the Gaza Strip, a part of the Palestinian territories.
Instead, according to analyst Benedetta Berti, the rivals follow a hardline Salafi jihadist ideology that condemns nationalism and participation in non-Sharia political systems.
[2][4] Besides several documented groups, there have been a number of smaller, loosely affiliated cells that adopt a variety of front names to perpetrate attacks.
[1] Many terror attacks in Gaza, such as the 2007 killing of the Gazan Christian Rami Ayyad and the destruction of Crazy Water Park in 2010 were carried out by anonymous cells.
[2][6] The early movement was seen as helping Saudi efforts to propagate Wahhabism (which is often seen as a subset of Salafism[7][8]) and counter the Iranian Shia Islam of Ruhollah Khomeini.
[2] According to journalist Jared Maslin, a number of Salafi groups in the Gaza Strip continue to receive support and funding from the Saudi government today.
[6] The first documented Salafi organization in the Gaza Strip was "Dar al-Kitab wa-al-Sunna" (House of the Book and Sunnah), established in 1975 by Sheikh Yasin al-Astal, which was non-violent and focused on preaching and education.
[2] The integration of jihadist ideology into Gazan Salafism began in the 2000s, and appears to have correlated with similar radicalization processes in the Sinai; the first reports on "violent Salafis" date to this period as well.
[9][10] After a period of stagnation, a number of Salafi jihadist groups began to appear in 2005 as Israel prepared for its disengagement from the Gaza Strip.
[1] After it seized power in June 2007, Hamas was able to secure Johnston's release,[16] and subsequently began to suppress the Army of Islam's activities, which nonetheless continued sporadically and included attacks on co-ed schools, local Christians, and a YMCA building.
[17][18][19][20] The attack, which targeted Coptic Christians, was the deadliest act of violence against the community in a decade, since the Kosheh massacre in 2000 which left 20 Copts dead.
[12] The group may have completely collapsed as a result of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war (2023–present), on account of the Dogmush clan appearing to have been nearly wiped out by Israeli bombings,[24][25] and Hamas reportedly executing their leader for stealing humanitarian aid.
[1] Suyuf al-Haq has organized attacks against targets they deem immoral or un-Islamic, such as internet cafes, claiming they blew up more than 50 "morally corrupted" businesses in 2007.
In 2007, the group orchestrated the assassination of senior Palestinian intelligence officer Colonel Jed Tayya, whom it accused of being a Mossad agent.
[44] Hamas officials also blamed the group for the bombings of several internet cafes, and of a wedding party attended by relatives of the West Bank-based Fatah leader, Mohammed Dahlan, in which fifty people were injured.
[55] In September 2009, Jaljalat revealed that it had attempted to assassinated former US president Jimmy Carter and former UK prime minister Tony Blair, but the plot had been foiled by Hamas.
[63] The Lions of Monotheism was a group that firebombed five Christian churches in September 2006 in response to the controversy over Pope Benedict XVI's comments on Islam.