Home inContext Did Al-Qaeda Infiltrate Gaza?

Did Al-Qaeda Infiltrate Gaza?

Jonathan Schanzer
SOURCE

Terror alerts along the Egyptian border have reached their highest level since the onset of the Second Intifada, a senior Israeli military official told the Jerusalem Post. Intelligence information has confirmed that terrorists had taken advantage of the open Rafah border to stream into the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip.

But what about terrorists going into Gaza from Egypt? There have been numerous terrorist attempts and attacks reported in the Sinai Peninsula, attributed to al-Qaeda, in recent years.

In the fall 2007 issue of inFocus Quarterly, I raised the possibility of cooperation between al-Qaeda and Hamas. If al-Qaeda sought to infiltrate Gaza in order to start attacking Israel, the recent breach of the Egyptian border fence was its best chance.