Al Qaida leader escapes Hamas prison during Israeli raid
GAZA CITY — A leading Al Qaida operative has escaped a Hamas prison
in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has acknowledged the escape of Abu Hamza as well as 30 other Al
Qaida operatives. Officials said the escape took place during an Israel Air
Force raid on Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian sources said Al Qaida-aligned groups have been discussing an
alliance and a renewed campaign against the Hamas regime. They said the
Salafists were receiving support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf
Cooperation Council states. Some of the groups were identified as the Army
of Islam, Army of the Nation and Jaljilat.
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Palestinian sources said Abu Hamza Al Maqdisi has escaped a Hamas
detention center in Gaza City in late December 2009. They said Al Maqdisi,
also known as Mahmoud Taleb, was regarded as a leader in the Al
Qaida-aligned movement in the Gaza Strip.
"Abu Hamza is believed to have escaped to Egypt," a Palestinian source
said.
Abu Hamza was arrested in September 2009 in a Hamas crackdown on the Al
Qaida-aligned presence in the Gaza Strip. He was detained with another 200
Salafist operatives deemed a threat to the Hamas regime, particularly in
the southern towns of Khan Yunis and Rafah.
The sources said many leaders of the Al Qaida-aligned movement in the
Gaza Strip have gone underground in wake of the Hamas crackdown. The
crackdown began in August 2009 when 30 people, most of them Salafist
fighters, were killed in a Hamas assault on a mosque in Rafah controlled by
Jund Ansar Allah. One of the casualties was Abdul Latif Mussa, leader of
Jund Ansar Allah who had proclaimed a separate entity in Rafah.
