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Hamas seeks reconciliation with Salafists

Faced with numerous security challenges, Hamas leaders appear to have settled on reconciliation with Salafists in Gaza rather than force of arms.
Palestinian police officers loyal to Hamas push back Salafists during a protest against satirical French weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, outside the French Cultural Centre in Gaza city January 19, 2015. Dozens of Jihadist Salafi men rallied in Gaza on Monday to condemn continued publication by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam's Prophet. Charlie Hebdo published a picture of Mohammad weeping on its cover last week after gunmen stor
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The security threats facing the Gaza Strip are many and varied. They range from concerns about Israel waging a new war given the absence of a truce with Hamas to trepidations caused by the soured relationship between Hamas and Egypt to fears engendered by a series of bombings in Gaza during the last two months. Of particular note are the bombings next to the parliament building on April 17 and the twin bombings next to the offices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East on April 18. No one has claimed responsibility for either bombing.

Meanwhile, ongoing tensions between Hamas and Salafists have recently been manifested in an increase in the number of security checkpoints and arrests of a number of Salafists. A new front opened between the two movements when Salafists issued a statement May 1 demanding that Hamas release their detained colleagues, and Hamas security services raided a Salafist headquarters in central Gaza early in the month.

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