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Tensions increase between Hamas, Salafists

Hamas-affiliated security forces have been waging a large-scale arrest campaign targeting Salafists, while Gaza’s fate seems to hang in the balance.
Palestinian Salafists shout slogans during a rally in protest of what they say are recent massacres committed against Syrian and Egyptian people and against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and Egypt's army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip August 22, 2013. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa (GAZA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX12TCB
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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The tension between Hamas and Gaza security services against Salafist jihadists has returned to the fore, most recently in a campaign of arrests targeting Salafists. Hundreds of security checkpoints have been set up to search and arrest Salafists and anyone thought to be connected to them in Gaza City.

The checkpoints and the intensive security campaigns portend that tensions between the two sides may reach a peak not seen since 2009, when security services and Hamas took control of the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque, leading to the death of Salafists who had barricaded themselves inside. A significant number of Salafists are now languishing in Gaza jails.

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