Israel, Egypt, Hamas against global jihad
Egypt considers Hamas to be a vital and integral partner in the war that it is waging with Israel against the international jihadist movement, its branches in the Sinai Peninsula and the Salafist cells that started flourishing in the Gaza Strip recently.
Suicide attacks were one of the major “weapons” in the Hamas arsenal during the second intifada (2000-2005). In the last two years, however, such attacks have become a double-edge sword, with them being used to strike at Hamas on two separate occasions. The most recent of these attacks happened Aug. 27, when two Salafist suicide bombers blew themselves up beside two separate police positions manned by Hamas forces. The blasts killed three members of the Hamas forces.
The first time a suicide attack was used against Hamas occurred two years ago, in August 2017. A suicide bomber blew himself up along the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, killing a high-ranking officer in the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing. The attack left the Hamas leadership in shock. They immediately released a statement, saying, “Ground commander Nidal al-Jaafari was killed by one of those people possessing an ideology that veers from the straight and narrow path, who blew himself up beside a [Hamas] security team operating on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt."
