The Times of Israel reports: Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip have arrested four senior Islamic State members, including the group’s leader in the coastal enclave, the terror group said Saturday.
“This morning, security forces arrested Nour Issa, 27, who is a leader of the deviant thought movement and is from Bureij Camp in central Gaza, along with others,” a Hamas source said, using a phrase routinely used to refer to jihadists, including IS. The internal security service confirmed on its Facebook page that it had made a number of arrests. “One of the leaders of the deviant thought has been arrested along with others,” it said, without giving a name.
Issa and three others were holding a meeting in the house of one of the members in the southern Gaza city of Rafah when they were arrested. A large stash of weapons were also found, Hebrew media reports said. Hamas has run Gaza for a decade but it has been challenged by small hardline factions, some of them inspired by IS, who advocate a stricter, Salafist interpretation of Islam.
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