| Battle of Rafah (2009) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theSalafi-jihadist insurgency in the Gaza Strip | |||||||||
 Location ofRafah in theGaza Strip | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Islamic Emirate of Rafah |   Hamas Government | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Abdel Latif Moussa † Abu Abdullah al-Suri † | Khaled MashalIsmail Haniyeh Abu Jibril Shimali † | ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
 Jund Ansar Allah | |||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 100+ militants | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 15 militants killed 40 militants arrested |  6 police officers killed | ||||||||
| 5 Palestinian civilians killed 150 Palestinian civilians wounded[1] | |||||||||
TheBattle of Rafah (2009) took place betweenHamas andJund Ansar Allah in theRafah Governorate of theGaza Strip.[2] Fighting between the twoPalestinian militant organizations broke out on 14 August 2009, when Jund Ansar Allah's founderAbdel Latif Moussa denounced theHamas government for supposedly failing to enforceIslamic law and for "not being any different from asecular government" since it oustedFatah during theBattle of the Gaza Strip in June 2007. He subsequently proclaimed the establishment of theIslamic Emirate of Rafah and swore allegiance toal-Qaeda. In total, 26 people were killed and 150 were wounded during the conflict, including an 11-year-old Palestinian girl.[3] Moussa was killed inRafah on 15 August 2009, triggering the collapse of Jund Ansar Allah and the Islamic Emirate of Rafah.
A day before the Hamas raid, Jund Ansar Allah leader,Abdel Latif Moussa, declared theIslamic Emirate of Rafah, and swore allegiance toAl-Qaeda. About 100 of his fighters were seen in a video where he pledged allegiance in his base, amosque in Rafah.[4] The next day, theQassam Brigades attacked the mosque and other bases of the group inRafah. The fighting lasted 7 hours. It was reported that when Hamas reached the positions of Moussa and Jund Ansar Allah's military commander,Abu Abdullah al Suri, they detonated themselves.[ambiguous] About 15 Jund Ansar Allah fighters were killed, 40 were captured, 5 civilians were killed. Al-Qassam brigades commanderAbu Jibril Shimali, was also killed during the battle. The group was virtually destroyed after the fighting, having both of its leaders killed, and its bases captured. It was reported that Hamas later released some of the captured.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)| History |
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