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Up close and personal with Hamas' Mourabitoun unit

In an exclusive, Al-Monitor gained rare access to one of Hamas' most reputable brigades, the Mourabitoun, which are likely to play a lead role in any future confrontation with Israel.
Palestinian members of the al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, stand guard as they wait for the arrival of Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip December 7, 2012. Hamas's exiled leader Meshaal will step onto Palestinian land for the first time in 45 years on Friday for a "victory rally" in the Gaza Strip, displaying his newfound confidence after last month's conflict with Israel. Meshaal, the Islamist group's leader, who has not visited the Palestinian Territor
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CENTRAL GAZA — Since late October, the eastern Gaza border with Israel has been its most tense since the end of the November 2012 war. After Israel announced the discovery of a tunnel east of Khan Younis into Israel in early October, a number of Palestinians have been killed in related clashes, and a few Israelis wounded. Amid this heated atmosphere, attention is being drawn to the Mourabitoun units affiliated with the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, deployed along the border, from Rafah to Beit Hanoun.

It was not easy for Al-Monitor to accompany the Mourabitoun at a time when Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing such difficult times, but after unremitting efforts, permission was granted to follow an official nicknamed Abu Mujahid in eastern Gaza on a recent night as Israeli aircraft hovered overhead. During the field tour, Abu Mujahid confirmed that the Mourabitoun’s task is to monitor and guard Palestinian areas at risk of Israeli invasion. He also said that the unit works primarily at night, usually in places close to the contact lines with the Israeli army.

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