According to Montasser AlDe’emeh, an international expert on the Islamic State, the terror group is as much at war with Hamas and Iran as it is with Israel and America. And in Gaza, long before 7 October 2023, Hamas had been hunting down IS cells and providing information to the Egyptian intelligence services in their fight against Islamic State-Sinai Province (IS-SP).
AlDe’emeh, who is undertaking research into IS-affiliated groups at the KU Leuven and Ghent University in Belgium, has been at the forefront of the battle against terrorism for more than 10 years. He told The Independent: “The physical IS ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria ended in March 2019, yet we cannot say that the group has been completely defeated in that region. IS cells are still active in both countries.”
This is not to say that Islamic State is not facing its challenges. AlDe’emeh points out that the group has many local enemies. In Syria, says AlDe’emeh, these include Shia militias, the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syrian rebel groups supported by Turkey, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Sunni Arab tribes, Assad’s forces and militias affiliated with them, in addition to the international coalition, Arab countries such as United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, as well as Russia. AlDe’emeh warns that IS continues to play a waiting game to take advantage of the “weakening of the central governments in the Middle East”.