GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The disappearance of prisoner Mahmoud Salfiti, who belongs to a Salafist group in the Gaza Strip and is convicted of killing an Italian man in 2011, has raised serious questions in Palestinian society on how he managed to escape and the role of the Hamas security forces. Salfiti's escape has also revived the debate on the expansion of Salafist influence and its ability to affect change in Gaza.
Salfiti, 27, and two others — Mohammed Albraizat, 24, and Talal Omari, 21 — had threatened in a video on April 15, 2011, to kill Italian volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni, who was on an assignment in Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement, in the event Hamas did not release Salafist detainees within 30 hours. Arrigoni was found hanged and handcuffed in an apartment before the deadline expired.
Four days later, Hamas security forces entered a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza; Salfiti sustained minor injuries and Albraizat and Omari were killed in the operation. Salfiti was sentenced to 15 years in prison in February 2013.
After spending less than four years in Ansar prison in Gaza City, Salfiti was granted a 24-hour home leave by the prison administration on June 18 to visit his family in Gaza on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. Iyad al-Bezem, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior in Gaza, confirmed Salfiti's escape to Al-Monitor and said that his ministry is investigating.
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