Radical Islamist groups were reportedly developing at a robust pace in the West Bank of the Gaza Strip last week following the Palestinian Authority unity agreement, according to the Tower.
Also last week, a demonstration celebrating Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) military accomplishments that featured the chanting of slogans cheering for the eradication of Jews had to be dispersed by Hamas security officers.
The Tower reports:
Reports have been emerging since the announcement of a Palestinian unity pact—under which the Western-backed Fatah faction struck a deal with the terror group on the formation of a new cabinet—that Hamas had successfully brushed off a year of international isolation and was establishing influence in the West Bank. The ongoing kidnapping crisis that has gripped the area—which both Jerusalem and Washington have suggested is the result of a Hamas has depeened those concerns.
Observers are now worrying, however, that there is a broad ideological shift toward extremism occuring across the board. In the West Bank, the shift would be from Fatah to Hamas. In the Gaza Strip, it would be from Hamas to even more extremist groups.