My initial thought on reading this report: wouldn't Europeans be much more likely to travel to one of Al-Qaeda's trusted safe havens--the tribal regions of Pakistan or even Somalia--to train? That has been the pattern in recent years for European AQ recruits. What could they learn in Gaza that they couldn't learn in the AQ-friendly confines of, say, Waziristan, where AQ and the Taliban already have dozens of terror training camps? There's also the not-so-small matter of heavy Israeli and Egyptian intelligence on the ground in Gaza, monitoring jihadi activity and traffic in and out of the Strip. In addition, there have been some verbal slaps exchanged between Al-Qaeda and Hamas over the past few years over, frankly, how best to murder Jews. All of these factors give me pause. And yet...
We know that Al Qaeda has been looking to establish a foothold in Gaza for some time. A leading Israeli journalist who has spent extensive time in the Palestinian territories confirmed this to me during a briefing in Jerusalem back in November. Also, Al Qaeda certainly wants to hit Egypt hard and topple the Mubarak regime (Iran and Hezbollah would like to do the same). And war-torn, chaotic Gaza isn't exactly a bastion of law and order. It has all the characteristics of your classic terrorist safe haven. After all, it is governed by a terrorist group, Hamas. And although Al Qaeda has criticized Hamas from time to time in recent years, the two groups still share several major goals. Most importantly, for them, killing Jews and pushing Israel into the sea. I'll have much more on this in the days to come. In the meantime, here is a summary of the original Egyptian media report, as told by Israel Today:
An Egyptian newspaper reported this week that several European members of an Al Qaeda cell recently busted in Egypt received training and financing from Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Europeans - three Belgians, a man from France and another from the UK - stand accused, along with seven Arab Al Qaeda members, of planning to attack Israeli targets in Egypt and monitoring Israeli traffic through the Suez Canal.
Egyptian authorities involved in the investigation told Cairo's Al-Masri Al-Youm daily newspaper that they had discovered shocking evidence of the massive degree of Al Qaeda activity in both Gaza and Egypt.
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas for years denied that Al Qaeda was active in Gaza, but the territory's Hamas rulers never hid their affinity for Osama bin Laden's group and its accomplishments