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GAZA, Aug. 17-- Islamic Hamas movement tightened on Thursday its security measures on the Gaza Strip-Egypt border following an earlier suicide bombing carried out by an Islamic State (IS) militant. It is the first-of-its-kind suicide bombing attack carried out by extremists in the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007. Dozens of Hamas security officers were deployed in various areas of Rafah town in southern Gaza Strip, especially at the entrances to the border with Egypt, amid several military checkpoints for inspection. This came after a suicide bomber blew himself up with a number of internal Hamas members near the border with Egypt, killing one, and wounding seven members of the Interior. "A security incident occurred in the southern border area of the Gaza Strip east of Rafah crossing after a security force stopped two people as they approached the border with Egypt," Interior Ministry spokesman Eyad al-Bozzom said. Medical sources told Xinhua that Nidal Jaafari, 28, a member of the Internal Control Force of the Interior Ministry, died of his serious injuries in the bombing after one of the people blew himself up near the border. Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a press statement that Jaafari is a field commander in addition to his work in the Interior Ministry. Al-Qassam Brigades stressed that they "will not hesitate to defend the Palestinian people and land and to protect the resistance project from all threats, and to counter the deviant thought of the intruder original jihadist resistance." | 
