Hamas recruiting Islamists in Jordan camps to fight in Gaza
AMMAN — Palestinian Islamists have been recruited to leave their
native Jordan to fight for the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.
Jordanian sources said young Palestinians have been recruited to join
the Hamas regime or Al Qaida-aligned Palestinian militias in the Gaza Strip.
They said some of the recruits were also ordered to smuggle out of Jordan
light weapons, ammunition and detonators to help in the Hamas war against
Israel.
"The recruitment is taking place in the Palestinian refugee camps in
Jordan," a Jordanian source said. "We know of Hamas recruiters or clergy who
either help Palestinians to get to Gaza or simply encourage them to do so on
their own."
On Aug. 12, the Jordanian State Security Court began a trial of six
young men accused of forming a cell to smuggle recruits and weapons to the
Gaza Strip. The court said the suspects, four Palestinians and two
Jordanians, tried to join the Hamas war against Israel in January 2009.
Three of the suspects were declared fugitives and were being tried in
absentia.
An indictment identified the commander of the alleged cell as Osama Abu
Kabir. Abu Kabir was said to have formed a Hamas-aligned cell in early 2009
in an attempt to bring recruits and weapons to the Gaza Strip.
Abu Kabir was said to have recruited the five other defendants. The
indictment said the alleged commander established a headquarters for the
cell in the home of one of the members in the southern Jordanian town of
Maan. Other members of the cell were identified as Mohammed Zeidan and
Mohammed Abu Awrah, all of whom pleaded not guilty.
Jordanian sources said Hamas recruits aimed to arrive in Egypt's Sinai
Peninsula, linked by ferry to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. From Sinai, the
recruits were expecting to infiltrate the Gaza Strip with the help of
Bedouin smugglers.
