Citing Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Yediot Ahronot reports dozens of Gaza residents who went to fight for the Islamic State terror movement in Iraq, Syria and Libya recently returned to the region with some of them surrendering to Hamas and many others remaining in Sinai to fight Hamas for IS. The climax of the struggle between the two sides is illustrated in a recent video by IS of a man accused of transferring weapons to Hamas through smuggling tunnels from Sinai to Gaza. An additional seven people were executed. Gaza received information from Egyptian intelligence that IS intends to carry out suicide bombings in Gaza near the Sinai border.
Following the recent report in the New York Times about Israeli involvement in military activity against IS in Sinai, the sources with whom Al-Akhbar spoke said that more than 17 senior IS officials had been eliminated by Israel, most of whom had previously been active in PA or Gaza organizations.