A terrorist attack carried out by religious extremists on an elementary school in the Gaza Strip May 6 marks a new level in the violence engulfing the Palestinian territory. Israel’s backyard has become home to a growing jihadist presence quite apart from Hamas, adding yet another threat to the embattled country.

Under Hamas rule—or misrule—conditions continue to deteriorate in the Gaza Strip. As Jonathan Schanzer wrote in the New York Post last month, the terrorist group the Palestinians voted into power last year is failing to govern at all. To this point, the appalling violence—killings, kidnappings, bombings—within the Strip has been primarily between supporters of rival political parties Hamas and Fatah.

Amid the chaos, however, al Qaeda-style jihadist groups are also taking root. Attacks on Western institutions, or other targets considered un-Islamic, carried out by these Islamist terrorists have been on the rise recently—including attacks on stores that sell Western-style clothing or music, and an attack on the American International School in Gaza.

The attack on the Al Amareya elementary school this past Sunday by a group calling itself Salafiyeen, however, was the first such attack to occur in broad daylight in a crowd of people. Previous attacks appeared to be planned to avoid fatalities; attacks on Internet cafes, for example, have taken place when there was nobody present. “The assault on the school was a different matter entirely,” wrote Stratfor. “The protesters, who were armed and ready for trouble, staged their attack during school hours and regardless of the presence of children” (May 7). One person was killed and seven were injured in the attack. Stratfor wrote April 25,

[T]he lawlessness in the territories has provided jihadist elements with fertile ground to take root in the Palestinian theater. … Though Israel benefits from keeping the Palestinians in disarray, the attrition of Hamas’s organizational control and the worsening security conditions in the Gaza Strip are creating the conditions for Israel to face a future in which it will be battling the jihadist menace along its own border.

This is simply further evidence that Israel made a tragic mistake two years ago when it departed the Gaza Strip, handing it over to full Palestinian administration.

Not only has Israel’s security decreased, but so has that of the Palestinians. In the first three months of this year, 147 Gaza residents were killed in inter-Palestinian violence. At this rate, by the end of the year the number of deaths will be double that of 2006. The escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip in the past year clearly demonstrates the failure of Hamas to bring about a better life for Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israel faces not only a rearmed and energized Hamas stocking up for war, but also the prospect of other terrorist groups becoming entrenched among the Palestinians. The Strip is indeed turning into a highly volatile terrorist fortress.