Prediction Becoming Reality: Taliban-Style Warlord Regime in Gaza

Jamal Abu Samhadana is emerging as the most powerful figure in Rafah on the border between Gaza and Egypt. As the founder of an armed militia called the Salah ed-Din Brigades, he commands 2,000 gunmen.

Now that Israel has pulled out of Gaza, Abu Samhadana and his troops have a new target: Mahmoud Abbas and his security services. Yasser Arafat used to send Abu Samhadana $10,000 a month, but Abbas ended those payments in February. The Salah ed-Din Brigades ran its refugee camps, towns, and villages as gangster fiefs. With the Israelis gone, locals say it has increasingly turned to racketeering and extortion.