Isis in the Gaza Strip: Jihadists threaten to topple Islamist Hamas rule

Hamas's rule in Gaza has been threatened by Salafists from Islamic State, which has accused the Palestinian Islamist group of not being sufficiently fundamentalist.

In a video issued from an Islamic State (Isis) stronghold in Syria, the jihadists said: "We will uproot the state of the Jews [Israel] and you and Fatah [the secular Palestinian group], and all of the secularists are nothing and you will be over-run by our creeping multitudes." The masked Islamic State member called the Gaza Strip rulers the "tyrants of Hamas", reported Reuters.

"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. The Yarmouk camp is a Palestinian camp in Damascus that has been under siege by Isil.

Meanwhile, Israel's intelligence and transport minister, Israel Katz claimed on 30 June that Hamas was actually partnering with Islamic State affiliates in the Sinai desert. Hamas has vehemently denied such claims and has cracked down on Salafists in the Gaza Strip, stepping in to prevent them firing rockets at Israel.

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

"At the same time, within Gaza, Isis has been flouting Hamas. But they have common cause against the Jews, in Israel or abroad."