New Documents from Emerging Palestinian Al-Qaida Faction in Gaza Strip

Counterterrorism Blog - The NEFA Foundation has obtained and translated a communiqué and audio recording from an emerging branch of the Al-Qaida-aligned Fatah al-Islam movement based in the Gaza Strip. On January 12, 2008, the group issued a statement naming its local commander in the Palestinian territories as “Abu Abdelrahman al-Ghazzawi”, who it simply described as “a very kind brother, with much previous experience in jihad and deep-seeded roots in theology.” On February 12, 2008, Fatah al-Islam released the first known audio recording of Abu Abdelrahman al-Ghazzawi, in which he announced, “we shall commence our war from Palestine along with the Ansar and Muhajireen [emigrants and supporters] in order to unite our lines and to [honor] our slogans about battling the Jews who live near us—a jihad, in which there is no regard for clay and dirt…