„An al-Qaeda linked militant group has claimed responsibility for starting a devastating fire in the Israeli city of Haifa that forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Ma’sadat al-Mujahideen, a Palestinian Salafist group, has claimed to be behind several previous blazes in Israel, including the Mount Carmel forest fire that killed more than 40 people near Haifa in 2010. There is no proof of the group’s involvement in the blaze, or others they claimed near Jerusalem in 2011 and in the American state of Nevada in the following year. A previous statement from Ma’sadat al-Mujahideen demanded that Jewish people ‚return from whence they came since they have no place among us‘, threatening to continue arson attacks in Israel and among the country’s allies.
Terrorism monitors at the Jamestown Foundation said the group’s claims were ‚questionable‘ but that it was fixated on the use of fire as a weapon of jihad. Ma’sadat al-Mujahideen has no known links to Hamas and has positioned itself in opposition to the Islamist group, criticising it for failing to fully implement Sharia law in Gaza, and for alleged ‚apostasy‘.“ (Lizzie Deadren: „Israel fires: Al-Qaeda linked Palestinian militant group ‚claims responsibility‘ for devastating Haifa blaze“)