Salafistgrupper har dukket opp i Gaza, hvor det har vært en rekkke angrep på internettcafeer, videokiosker. Mest alvorlig var angrepet på en UNRWA-drevet skole i Rafah forrige uke mens den øverste-FN representanten i Gaza var til stede. En vakt ble drept og sju såret.

Grunnen til angrepet var at elevene i alderen 6-12 år opptrådte sammen. Det provoserte salafistene. På samme måte som de ikke liker musikk, video og internett.

Men ingen vet riktig hvem de er. Det man registrerer er at en ideologi som forbindes med Al Qaida har gjort sitt inntog. Om det er lokale krefter eller folk utenfra, vites ikke helt bestemt.

Disse opplysningene setter kidnappingen av BBC-journalisten Alan Johnston i et annet lys. Det kan være uttrykk for en pågående radikalisering, som er sterkt antivestlig. Det kan gi en helt annen dreining til den pågående konflikten mellom Fatah og Hamas. Noen vil tolke striden inn i en global jihad.

Israel hevder at Hizbollah sendte folk til Gaza like etter at krigen i Libanon var over, for å lære Hamas de samme taktikken som hadde vist seg så nyttige i nord.

Israeli officials have suggested for several months that they have indications that Al Qaeda groups have infiltrated the Gaza Strip through the Egyptian border.

More likely, say many Palestinians, is that Islamic groups here have taken inspiration from Al Qaeda’s ideology and are trying to impose such a vision on the conflict. Not just the Palestinian conflict with
Israel, that is, but the conflict among Palestinians themselves.

A troubling case in point: a shooting attack this week on an elementary school that was in the middle of holding a performance. The school in Rafah, one of the more unstable locales of the coastal strip, is run by the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA), one of the few arms of international aid that maintains a major presence in Gaza despite the exodus of almost all foreign nationals.

A group of Palestinian Salafis, Islamists connected to the fundamentalist Salafi school in Saudi Arabia, was angry that the show featured a «mixed event» of boys and girls – aged 6 to 12 – performing together. The Salafi group opened fire, killing one guard of a Palestinian parliament member from Fatah and wounding seven others, including three children.

A more modern-minded member of the Palestinian parliament said the protesters wanted to take Palestinians «back to the dark ages.»

Noen velger å bruke jihad-terminologi for å dekke over de egentlige motivene. Det sies fra mange hold at de som har kidnappet Alan Johnston er Dogmush-klanen, som skjuler seg bak gruppenavnet Islams hær. I virkeligheten krever de å få overta en av de tidligere israelske bosettingene som eget område.

Israeli observers take a different view. They say websites tied to Al Qaeda have claimed to have cells operating in both the
West Bank and Gaza, says Professor Raphael Israeli, who studies Islamic fundamentalist movements at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Moreover, he says,
Iran has been vocal in its assistance in helping to train militants.

«The Iranians have stated clearly that Lebanese Hizbullah advisers have infiltrated into the Gaza Strip as soon as the debacle in the Lebanese war was over, and they are teaching the Hamas to adopt the same tactics used against Israel because they see they were effective,» Mr. Israel says.

«Of course, Iran is not Al Qaeda, but we also know from separate and independent statements on the internet that they have their own cells not just in Gaza, but in the West Bank, in places such as Jenin and Nablus.»

Al Qaeda tactics expand in Gaza