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               Islamic State Threatens to 'Uproot' Hamas in Gaza

   by Reuters

   Islamic State insurgents threatened Tuesday to turn the Gaza Strip into
   another of their Middle East fiefdoms, accusing Hamas, the organization
   that rules the Palestinian territory, of being insufficiently stringent
   about religious enforcement.

   The video statement, issued from an Islamic State stronghold in Syria,
   was a rare public challenge to Hamas, which has been cracking down on
   jihadis in Gaza who oppose its truces with Israel and reconciliation
   with the U.S.-backed rival Palestinian faction Fatah.

   "We will uproot the state of the Jews [Israel] and you and Fatah, and
   all of the secularists are nothing and you will be overrun by our
   creeping multitudes," said a masked Islamic State member in the message
   addressed to the "tyrants of Hamas."

   "The rule of sharia [Islamic law] will be implemented in Gaza, in spite
   of you. We swear that what is happening in the Levant today, and in
   particular the Yarmouk camp, will happen in Gaza," he said, referring
   to Islamic State advances in Syria, including in a Damascus district
   founded by Palestinian refugees.

   Islamic State has also taken over swaths of Iraq and has claimed
   attacks in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen.

   Hamas is an Islamist movement that shares the jihadis' hostility to
   Israel but not their quest for a global religious war, defining itself
   more within the framework of Palestinian nationalism.

   Deemed a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and the European
   Union, and viewed by neighboring Arab power Egypt as a regional
   security threat, Hamas has not won sympathy abroad for its struggle
   against Islamic State-linked jihadis.

   Israel's intelligence minister, Israel Katz, accused Hamas on Tuesday
   of partnering with Islamic State affiliates in the Egyptian Sinai -- a
   charge long denied by the Palestinian group.

   "There is cooperation between them in the realm of weapons smuggling
   and terrorist attacks. The Egyptians know this, and the Saudis," Katz
   told a Tel Aviv conference organized by the Israel Defense journal.

   "At the same time, within Gaza, ISIS [Islamic State] has been flouting
   Hamas. But they have common cause against the Jews, in Israel or
   abroad."
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic-state-threatens-uproot-hamas-
   gaza/2843940.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/islamic-state-threatens-uproot-hamas-gaza/2843940.html