Six dead in Gaza clashes between Hamas, Islamist radicals

Gaza City (ANTARA News/AFP) - Six people were killed and 50 wounded in fighting on Friday after Hamas police stormed a mosque in Gaza where radicals had declared an Islamist "emirate" in the Palestinian territory, emergency services said.

The clashes began in the afternoon after weekly prayers in the southern city of Rafah, which straddles the Egyptian border, and were continuing after dark, witnesses said.

At least one of the dead was a Hamas policeman, while 10 of the wounded were said to be in critical condition.

At the same time, an Egyptian security official said a three-year-old boy was critically wounded by a bullet from the fighting across the border.

Following the prayers, a group of Palestinians announced the formation of the Islamist emirate, defying the authority of Hamas, which has ruled the impoverished enclave for the past two years, witnesses said.

"We are today proclaiming the creation of an Islamist Emirate in the Gaza Strip," Abdul Latif Musa, a representative Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers of the Partisans of God), said at the Bin Taymiyya mosque, the witnesses reported.

Musa was surrounded by armed fighters when he made his statement, according to the witnesses.

In reaction, the Hamas interior ministry warned that those violating the law would be pursued and arrested.

"Everyone outside the law and carrying arms in order to spread chaos will be pursued and arrested," a statement said.

At the same time, Hamas premier Ismail Haniya denied that the group exists.
"No such groups exist on the ground in Gaza," he said at prayers in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. He blamed the "Israeli media for spreading this information with a view to turning the world against Gaza."

Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after a week of vicious fighting with forces of the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas.

Itself Islamist, Hamas is regarded by the United States and Israel as a terrorist group and Israel maintains a blockade on the territory.

US-based monitoring service SITE Intelligence said Jund Ansar Allah announced its allegiance to the "Islamic Emirate in the Heart of Beit al-Maqdis (Jerusalem)" in a message issued on its website and jihadist forums on Friday.

A translation of the statement declared that Abu al-Nur al-Maqdisi (Abdul Latif Musa) was the leader.

"We are arrows in your quiver. By Allah, you will only find us to be loyal and obedient soldiers and strong and firm men."

It said all the group`s military factions had "dissolved into the Islamic Emirate in the Heart of (Jerusalem)" and called on "all the loyal and truthful in the heart of (Jerusalem) to hurry to declare allegiance to the Islamic Emirate."

It also called on all Muslims in Gaza to "support the mujahedeen (holy warriors), to aid them and to host them."

To Muslims elsewhere, it issued a call to "back this fresh emirate, to support it with money, weapons and men."

Finally, it said: "to the enemies of Allah, the soldiers of tawhid (unification) will not rest and they will not tire till the faith of Allah the Great and Almighty gains victory, till the entirety of Muslim lands are liberated and till our imprisoned Aqsa (mosque in Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem) is purified from the desecration of the accursed Jews."

Jund Ansar Allah seeks the strict enforcement of Islamic Sharia law and accuses Hamas of being too liberal, witnesses said. It is said to have threatened to burn down Internet cafes and to seek greater modesty on Gaza beaches.

Musa demanded Hamas "cease its aggression against Salafists," SITE reported.
Rafah is the Gaza stronghold of the so-called Salafist movement, of which Jund Ansar Allah is said to a part and which are ideologically close to Al-Qaeda.(*)