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Gaza Salafist leader: 'We are following Islamic State ideology'

Only a small number of Salafists from Gaza have traveled to Syria and died fighting for the Islamic State.
Palestinian Salafists take part in a protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 24, 2012. The black flag reads "There is no god but Allah and Mohammad is the prophet". The white sign reads "Where are the traitor Arab rulers". REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR2YDGR

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Ahmed, a 19-year-old affiliated with one of the Salafist jihadist factions in Gaza, thought he had found the perfect environment in Syria for implementing his jihadist ideas, fighting among the ranks of the Islamic State (IS). His father told Al-Monitor that Ahmed (a pseudonym) had been living in a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip before joining IS at the beginning of 2014. Ahmed was killed at the end of the year.

Ahmed's father, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said his son had died during clashes between IS and Kurdish forces, adding that Ahmed had initially kept him in the dark about his trip to Syria. “I didn't know he had gone to fight in Syria. Had I known, I would have stopped him,” he said. He later learned that his son had left Gaza via the tunnels on the Egyptian border.

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