Hamas' students

Twenty people were killed and some 120 were injured during a deadly confrontation between Hamas security forces and gunmen from a militant Salafi splinter group, Jund Ansar Allah after the group's leader declared on Friday his neighbourhood in Rafah an Islamic emirate.
The battle at a mosque in Rafah started early Friday and ended Saturday with Hamas declaring the end of the operation that killed Abdel Latif Moussa, leader of Jund Asar Allah, an al-Qaeda-inspired organization.
The group has carried out attacks against Israel, but Hamas chose to ignore their presence until the Salafi group did what Hamas did to Fatah: accused it of being infidels and of eagerness to please the West.
Dismissed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said after the military operation ended that Jund Ansar Allah took advantage of youth and infused them with “strange ideas” based on acting against so-called atheists in a violent way.
When Hamas violently took over Gaza, Palestinians I interviewed were shocked to see bodies of Fatah men killed by Hamas masked gunmen dragged on the streets and spit at by Hamas gunmen as "athiests". Fatah so-called "infidels" were thrown from rooftops. Others were beaten with sticks until their bones were broken. Nails were drilled in the legs and knees of some Fatah men I spoke to in 2007.
Hamas crushed the Salafi militant group hoping the World would consider it a moderate, Islamic movement that seeks international legitimacy and an authority that can crush pro-Qaeda radicals. Its members have said that the World should engage with Hamas that can impose law and order in Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian businessman in the West Bank city of Ramallah said the fighting between Hamas security forces and Jund Ansar Allah gunmen showed that Hamas' rule in Gaza was no different from any other Arab police state that would stop at nothing to survive.
A politician said it was scary to see how the situation in Gaza, the rule of Hamas, the isolation, poverty and siege, have created militant, radical groups that make Hamas look like a moderate movement.
Since Hamas seized Gaza Strip in June, 2007 by force, it has slowly and cautiously been turning Gaza into an Islamic emirate. It has imposed restrictions on the work of the press. Many journalists simply don't report human rights abuses taking place in Gaza.
Human rights activists say their reports show human rights abuses and cases of torture in the West Bank as well, but violations in Gaza were more systematic.
What happened in Gaza with Jund Ansar Allah may be just the beginning of Hamas' problems with similar hardline Salafi groups that have emerged originally from Hamas disenchanted grassroots.