Gaza Salafists slam Hamas for post-Sinai attack crackdown

A Salafist official accused Gaza's Hamas rulers on Friday of arresting an activist wounded in an Israeli air raid as part of a crackdown since the deadly Sinai attack on August 5. According to a statement by Abu Abdallah al Mohajir, Hamas internal security forces arrested Sheikh Abu Suhaib Rashwan on Wednesday, "immediately after Rashwan was released from hospital." Rashwan was "seriously injured in the Israeli raid that targeted him along with the martyr Ghaleb Armelat in the city of Rafah," he said. On June 20, an Israeli missile strike on a motorcycle in the southern border city of Rafah wounded Rashwan and killed 21-year-old Ermilat. The Israeli military said Ermilat was a "global jihad operative" who was behind a deadly ambush along the Israeli-Egyptian border two days earlier that killed an Israeli civilian. It also accused the two of membership of Tawhid wal Jihad, a "global jihad terror movement that is responsible for ongoing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers." According to Mohajir, the arrest came after a request by Egyptian security officials, who also asked to oversee "all details of investigations and inquiries carried out by Hamas security against members of Salafist groups in Gaza." Sources in Cairo have suggested that some of the gunmen involved in the attack that killed 16 Egyptian border guards had entered Sinai through a network of smuggling tunnels which run under the Gaza border. But Hamas rulers strongly insist there was no proof that any Palestinian was involved in the deadly attack. Hardline Salafists, meanwhile, accuse Hamas of weakness in the face of Israel and criticise it for not imposing Islamic Sharia laws in the territory. Mohajir noted that many members of Salafist groups have been summoned for questioning by Hamas since the Sinai attack, although "none of the groups in the Strip were responsible for the attack on Egyptian soldiers."