ISIS-Sinai leader visiting Gaza to boost cooperation with Hamas

Shadi el-Menei, the leader of ISIS in Sinai, has been in Gaza for the last two weeks to coordinate military cooperation with Hamas. He has been engaged in intensive discussions with the military wing of the Hamas and coordinating cooperation between Hamas and Ansar Beit Al Makdis, his terror organization operating in the Sinai. Contrary to Cairo's announcement that el-Menei was killed in an airstrike by the Egyptian air force in May 2014, he remains the leader of the organization that is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and policemen; the infiltration of a hijacked Egyptian armored vehicle into Israeli territory in the summer of 2012 after the killing of 16 Egyptian policemen; the firing of rockets on Eilat in the summer of 2013; the sinking of an Egyptian navy ship by a missile in August 2015; the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai about a month ago; as well as many other terrorist attacks in mainland Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula.
DEBKAfile's counterterrorism and intelligence sources:  As a result of the strengthening of the Salafis in Gaza including the increase of their military strength, the military wing of Hamas decided to cooperate with Ansar Beit Al-Makdis, a Salafi group.