Two-hundred protesters marched through the streets of Gaza City waving Islamic State (IS) flags in protest of Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons. In the West Bank, meanwhile, Israeli security forces arrest members of an IS cell in Hebron. Yet neither Hamas nor Fatah, both of which are threatened by IS, is willing to admit its presence on their territory. Khaled Abu Toameh explains:
Hamas’s biggest fear is that scenes of Islamic State supporters marching in the heart of Gaza City will scare international donors and dissuade them from providing badly needed funds for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also afraid that Western officials working with the United Nations and relief agencies will stop visiting the Gaza Strip after watching the footage of Islamic State supporters. . . .
As for the West Bank:
According to Israeli security sources, dozens of Hamas and Islamic Jihad members in the West Bank have defected to Islamic State in recent months. Their main goal, the sources said, is to topple the PA and launch terror attacks on Israel. . . .
Still, [Mahmoud] Abbas . . . fears that if he admits Islamic State is already operating in the West Bank, this could dissuade many Western countries from supporting his effort to persuade the world to support the creation of an independent Palestinian state. Like Hamas, Abbas also fears that Westerners would stop visiting Ramallah and other West Bank Palestinian cities once they learn about Islamic State’s presence in these areas.
Read more on Gatestone: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5139/palestinians-islamic-state