Yesterday, in reaction to Friday’s Sinai terror attack, Egypt closed its borders to “a high-ranking Hamas delegation” and cancelled a session of talks that was scheduled for today and aimed to establish a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Sissi said on Saturday that “foreign hands” were behind a suicide car bombing that killed over 30 soldiers at a checkpoint near the northern Sinai town of el-Arish, declaring a three-month state of emergency in the peninsula. But Egypt’s deputy interior minister, Samih Bashadi, was more specific on Sunday, accusing “Palestinian operatives” of involvement in the attack.
Security in the Sinai can only be achieved through the establishment of a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Sinai, Bashadi told Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat. He said Egypt would target terror bases in northern Sinai using Apache attack helicopters
The Times also reports that Hamas had hoped to have improved its ties with Egypt. Cairo-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk claimed that Hamas had broken its ties with Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Abu Marzouk nonetheless blamed Egypt for the attack on its soldiers:
“Every time a disaster strikes Egypt in the era of the coup instigators, they point their fingers at Gaza,” the Hamas leader wrote on his Facebook page late Saturday night. “It’s as though Gaza is a lightning rod for their ongoing failure. Stop blaming Gaza, O failed ones!”
The government’s decision to take action against Hamas followed widespread blame placed on the terrorist organization in the Egyptian media.
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