An interesting, if very biased, analysis of what is happening in Israel comes from Egypt, from the journalist Hisham Al-Najjar. He wrote in one of his articles on 7 December: Isis awaits the fall of Hamas and the Taliban.
According to the author, the entry of members of the Army of Islam and Liwa al-Tawhid into the line of the operation to flood Al-Aqsa diverted the attack from its course, increased the number of victims and hostages, and deviated from the Hamas style.
A kind of justification and partial ‘apology’ for what Hamas did on 7 October? Not really. “After the fall of the wings of the political Islam movement that took the electoral road to power, the two main models that combine politics and militarism have remained in Palestine and Afghanistan, while the Islamic State organisation (ISIS) defends them and waits to benefit from their fall.
According to the author, on 7 October there was an uncoordinated entry of elements of the Palestinian branch of Isis (Jaysh al-Islam and Liwa al-Tawhid) into the line of the Al-Aqsa flooding operation. with the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, diverting the attack from its course and increasing the number of casualties.AND hostages and taking them out Hamas-style.
According to data we have collected over 10 years of observing the jihadist social sphere. The Sunni extremist groups that have joined Hamas mentioned in the article, Jaysh al-Islam and Liwa al-Tawhid, are not linked to ISIS but to al-Qaeda and have been fighting against Assad in Syria. As soon as the news broke on 7 October, al-Qaeda resumed its 2019 media campaign entitled: Jerusalem will never be Judaised and called on its men in the hemisphere to join the fight to liberate Jerusalem. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the synagogue bombings in Canada and the attacks in France.
According to Hisham Al-Najjar, ‘the fact that Isis was involved in the attack has solved many mysteries, especially in relation to some of the violations against civilians, and answered the main question about the possibility of Hamas provoking Israel by carrying out an operation of this magnitude and dragging it into a global war that could destroy its political future.
The Al-Aqsa bombing, and the speech that accompanied and followed it, are inconsistent with what preceded it as a prelude to the legacy of the Palestinian Authority: after Hamas sought to extend its authority in the West Bank, its continued rule in Gaza is highly questionable.
The sign Hisham Al-Najjar is talking about are the flags found at the site of attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. But ISIS does not leave flags behind. ISIS raises the flags in the conquered territories. Not only that, if ISIS takes part in this heinous struggle, why does it not talk about it in the social sphere? There are no ISIS claims about the attacks, while the communiqués of Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad are very present. One of the jihadist production houses that is most present on the Israel-Hamas issue in favour of Hamas is Sandar, which is linked to al-Qaeda and has released videos praising what happened on 7 October against Israel and is still giving the line on what must be done from now on to liberate Jerusalem. This includes attacks on individuals in the West. The call was also translated into English for a publication headed by al Maqdisi, another al-Qaeda leader of Syrian origin. All the jihadist groups and al Maqdisi, who over time has also been close to HTS, Hayat Tharir al Sham, which over time has been linked to Daesh and then to al-Qaeda.
Hisham Al-Najjar goes on to say: “The issue has spiraled out of control and the Israeli retaliation has turned into a war of extermination and the determination to destroy the Gaza Strip and not Hamas has only led the movement’s allies to be reluctant to participate and to deny having knowledge of the operation. By ruining Hamas’s political plans and sabotaging its hegemony over the entire Palestinian scene and its aspirations to extend its influence in the West Bank, there is no one who benefits more than ISIS, which seized the opportunity and exaggerated the bloodiness of the attack on the settlements, surround the Gaza Strip to destroy the political future of Hamas and drag it into a global clash with Israel”.
The words of the author Hisham Al-Najjar do not make the actions of Hamas any less bloody, which at the moment does not appear to withdraw from the territories under Israeli siege: “ISIS is currently challenging two large Islamic entities with the aim of eliminating them: the first is the Palestinian Hamas, which is the only wing of the international Muslim Brotherhood organization that has remained in power and has governed without internal competitors since it took power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, the Taliban movement, which took power to Kabul by force, and a deceptive agreement with Washington.”
We can partially agree if we replace the word ISIS with al Qaeda. Lately, al Qaeda’s communication has become much more punctual and the videos are of better quality. A sign that important investments have arrived. ISIS is currently taking over Africa in a literal sense by registering its “Caliphate” presence in Nigeria, Niger, and is clashing with JNIM (al Qaeda) and government authorities in Mali and Burkina Faso. Other areas infected by Daesh include Mozambique, some cells in Chad and Somalia. There remain groups of believers in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. One question remains: why was there Daesh material in the places of the attacks? ISIS has never talked about martyrs or Daesh cells in Palestine. Not only that, it has always declared in its recent and less recent statements that Hamas is the daughter of Iran and therefore is the daughter of the devil.
Antonio Albanese e Graziella Giangiulio
