Special to WorldTribune.com

NICOSIA — Al Qaida’s leading militia in the Levant has claimed a
presence in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it established bases in the
Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in 2014.

In a statement ISIL, deemed the most powerful Sunni Islamist force in the region, was training Palestinians from the Gaza Strip for the war in Iraq and Syria.

“The holy warriors of the Gaza Strip are in ISIL,” the statement said. The statement was accompanied by photographs that showed training of unidentified men.

The fighters were said to comprise an ISIL unit called Sheik Abu Nour Al Maqdisi, killed in a Hamas assault in the southern city of Rafah in 2009.

ISIL, which showed eight purported fighters, did not provide details of its presence in the Gaza Strip. The statement urged Hamas to impose Islamic law on the strip.

Al Qaida-aligned militias have been expanding operations in the Gaza Strip.

Egypt and Israel have determined that these militias were working with elements in Hamas and Islamic Jihad to organize rocket attacks from the Sinai Peninsula.

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