In the biggest confrontation yet between the dismissed government of Ismail Haniyeh and an Islamic group, more than 30 people were killed last week, including 12 civilians and several policemen. The bloody confrontation came after Abdel-Latif Moussa -- also known as Abul-Nur Al-Maqdisi, leader of Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Followers of God, and among the killed -- declared an Islamic emirate, or mini-state, in Rafah. Moussa, who promised to implement Islamic law, accused Hamas of being too "secular".

Recently, Moussa's followers killed Mohamed Al-Shamali, a leading figure of the Ezzeddin Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, who was trying to mediate between them and security officials.

At first, some of the statements attributed to Salafi groups threatened retaliation against Hamas leaders and security officials. The Salafis, who want to return to pure Islam practised by the Salaf (early Muslims), were cited as saying that the public should stay away from mosques in which Hamas leaders pray. Later on, Salafi leaders denied issuing such threats.

A statement by Salafi groups said that, "we are the sons of one nation and our cause is a shared one and we must not shed each other's blood under any circumstances." Salafi groups stated they were not at war with Hamas or any Palestinian faction "regardless of differences in opinion".

According to the same statement, Salafis were against vilifying anyone who testifies that: "there is no God but God."

Salafi groups denied that the formation of an Islamic emirate was meant to undermine any government or vilify "the sons of our nation". The groups described the killing of Abdel-Latif Moussa by the Hamas government as a "hasty reaction". Dismissed prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, who is in control of Gaza, said that security forces couldn't help but take action against the excesses of Jund Ansar Allah who were assaulting the government and denouncing it as "apostate".

Haniyeh warned that Salafi groups were "exploiting some youths to feed alien ideas of denunciation and bloodshed, a trend that started following the failure of the siege and the war on Gaza". He called on young men to "distance themselves from negative thinking and misguidance".

The declaration of the emirate crowned a series of assaults by Jund Ansar Allah. Members of the group tried to attack both former US president Jimmy Carter and Quartet envoy Tony Blair on their recent visits to Gaza. The groups bombed dozens of Internet cafés in Gaza, saying that they were "spreading decadence and vice among youngsters".

Deputy Ismail Al-Ashqar, chairman of the Legislative Council's Security Committee, described Jund Ansar Allah as "deranged and misguided". In a statement to Al-Ahram Weekly, he said that the government "will not tolerate deviations, whether intellectual, ethical, or patriotic". He added that, "deviations are unacceptable in our society, for it is a Muslim and struggling society and we do not need mentally sick people to impose their agenda on our people."

Al-Ashqar said that Jund Ansar Allah have no business denouncing society and calling others apostate. "How can they call society apostate, and call the mujahideen and the resistance and Hamas infidels? They are a misguided people who must be punished by the law."

According to Al-Ashqar, the rise of these groups comes "in the context of the Zionist threat to the government and the movement, after all the attempts of burying the government and unseating Hamas have failed, and after the last Zionist attack on our people in Gaza has been thwarted."

Israeli security officials are pleased with the rift between Hamas and the Salafi group. A source in the Israeli army has been cited as saying that the killing of Mohamed Al-Shamail by the Salafis was good news. The source added that Al-Shamali played a major role in the storming of the Israeli security post on the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the far southeast of Gaza in May 2006 -- the operation in which Gilad Shalit was captured. Al-Shamali is also though to have been involved in many attacks in which several Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers were killed or wounded.

Adnan Abu Amer, expert in Islamic movements, said that the recent confrontation was significant. The declaration of an Islamic emirate in Rafah came at a time when a stifling and criminal blockade was being imposed on Gaza, one in which Israel and the Mahmoud Abbas government and many Arab countries, in addition to Europe and the US, were involved. What made the declaration of the emirate particularly galling was that all the parties implicated in the siege, which has led to the death of hundreds of wounded and sick Palestinians, now had an excuse to justify their criminal act and claim that Hamas was planning to establish an Islamic emirate all along.

Abu Amer told the Weekly that those who speak in the name of the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the US saw the declaration of Jund Ansar Allah as a justification for continued blockade. "What does the declaration of an emirate mean while a government is in power? It means simply that there is another authority claiming that it has the right to monopolise the use of force in a way that suits the ideas of its people, which leads to chaos and disorderliness," Abu Amer said.

He called attention to the fact that those who belong to Salafi groups were accused of carrying out bombings against Internet cafés and wedding halls, the last of which was a large bomb that hit a wedding in Khan Younis, wounding dozens. They are also believed to have attacked Palestinian Christians in Gaza.

Hamas is determined to win the battle with extremist groups once and for all. Thus, the recent round of violence in Rafah may not be the last.