Islamic Jihad issues rare condemnation of Hamas for arrest

Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades has condemned Hamas for "kidnapping" one of their mujahadin.

According to their statement, Hamas raided an Islamic Jihad building on Monday morning and "arrested [the PIJ member] without regard for the sanctity of Ramadan and without respect for the [normal] coordination mechanisms used between Saraya [Islamic Jihad] and Gaza security forces."

PIJ added that Hamas "turned its back on all the efforts made for the release of the Mujahid, which led us to announce the incident, which we did not hope to reach this point."

The statement concluded that "this incident is strange and deplorable but will not affect the fraternal relations between the Quds Brigades of all the Palestinian factions and our brothers in the Gaza government. We express hope that the crisis ends soon ..and we return to the method of dialogue and understanding to resolve any problem that may happen in the future."

Although it is no surprise, this statement shows that the Hamas government normally coordinates activities with Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups, which makes the idea of  a peaceful "unity government" with Fatah even more of a joke.