JERICHO, West Bank, March 14 (Reuters) - Before a group of young men from Aqabat Jabr refugee camp mounted a botched attack on a restaurant in Jericho popular with Israeli settlers in January, they declared allegiance to Hamas.
Often with just a handful of fighters, the militant groups springing up across the West Bank over the past year have only loose ties to factions such as Hamas, Fatah or Islamic Jihad.
A few days after the attack, which failed when a gun jammed, the young men in the group were killed in an Israeli raid.
"All the signs are that the intifada is coming," said the Hamas cadre, who declined to be named for fear of Israeli reprisals.
The rally was a classic display of force, with some 250 fighters from various factions parading in a courtyard, its walls plastered with pictures of their dead, posing with guns and the cropped hairstyles popular among young West Bank men.