Hamas gunmen clash with radicals who declare ‘Islamic emirate’

Islamic radicals from an al-Qaida-inspired group are battling with Hamas security in the Gaza Strip in a shootout that has killed five people and wounded more than 50.

The clash came as Islamist radicals from the group called Jund Ansar Allah defied the Hamas rulers of Gaza on Friday by declaring an “Islamic emirate” in the territory.

Though the “Warriors of God” rallied only a few hundred men for their event at a Gaza mosque, it was the latest challenge to Hamas’s nationalist brand of Palestinian Islam by groups espousing a pan-Arab militancy aligned with al-Qaida.  Read the full story at HAARETZ.com.