Al-Qaida affiliated Gaza group issues Hebrew revenge threat

Terrorists’ internet message follows killing of Army of Islam pair who reportedly planned to kidnap Israelis in Sinai.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Rocket carried by terrorist 311 (photo credit: Associated Press)
Rocket carried by terrorist 311
(photo credit: Associated Press)
A day after the air force killed a senior Army of Islam terrorist said to be plotting the kidnap of Israeli vacationers in Sinai, an al-Qaida affiliated group in Gaza issued a Hebrew-language audio threat to Israel on the Internet.
The group, calling itself the Jemma Ansar al-Sunna (Community of Sunna Supporters), posted its message on jihadi forums, and the recording also found its way to YouTube on Thursday.
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“In the name of Allah, the most merciful the most compassionate,” the speaker began the message in Arabic. Switching to Arabic-accented Hebrew, he continued, “[This is] our letter to the attacking Jews. The killing of our brothers won’t stop us from continuing the jihad and won’t give you security.
“Our rockets will continue if you don’t leave the land of Palestine,” the message continued. “Know that your citizens won’t be safe anywhere.”
The speaker said terrorists affiliated with the global jihad in Gaza would avenge Wednesday’s killing of Islam Yassin and the November 3 killing of Army of Islam member Muhammad Jamal Faras Nemnam, also linked by security forces to the Sinai kidnap plot.
Both Nemnam and Islam were killed in air strikes on their vehicles in Gaza, and have been accused of being in the final stages of a kidnap plot. Yassin’s brother Muhammad was also killed in the strike on Wednesday, and four people were lightly injured, a Palestinian source in Gaza said.
Al-Qaida-affiliated groups in Gaza have had a shaky relationship with the ruling Hamas regime. In August 2009, jihadi leader Sheikh Abdel-Latif Moussa used a Friday afternoon sermon at his Rafah mosque to declare southern Gaza to be an Islamic emirate – one of the first steps toward realizing al-Qaida’s goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate there.
Hundreds of Hamas gunmen stormed the mosque, firing rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the building, killing or wounding nearly everyone inside.
Al-Qaida members have accused Hamas of being too focused on Palestinian nationalism and have called on it to join the international jihad.