Egypt’s leaders should declare Hamas, Qatar and Turkey “hostile entities” and cut off all political and diplomatic relations with them, according to a senior military expert.
The comments were made by Maj.-Gen. Ahmed Rajai, founder of the Egyptian Armed Forces 777 Division for combating terrorism, in the wake of coordinated attacks on Egyptian positions in the Sinai Peninsula that killed at least 33 soldiers.
Rajai accused Hamas of standing behind the last attack in Sinai attack in an interview with the newspaper Al-Arab (Arabic link).
Egyptian security forces arrested people involved in the attack, and their investigations indicated the suspects’ affiliation with Hamas, he said. Palestinian activists who were trained at military bases belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip are operating in northern Sinai, he added.
Rajai warned there are attempts to transfer the reality in Syria and Libya into the peninsula, and called for the arrests of Hamas leaders when they cross the border from Gaza.
Egypt is creating a buffer zone in northern Sinai, clearing residents from its border with the Gaza Strip, al-Arabiya TV reported. Many in the area have already packed their belongings and begun to leaving their homes, Cairo-based daily Youm 7 reported (Arabic link).
Cairo has spent the better part of the last year trying to demolish Hamas smuggling tunnels linking the Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip. Hamas operatives sought to embed their smuggling infrastructure within civilian structures and facilities during the “Arab Spring,” complicating efforts by both the Egyptians and the Israelis to prevent their anti-Hamas operations from impacting local populations.
The unfolding dynamic, which is yet another setback in Egyptian-Hamas ties, has led Cairo to call off formal ceasefire talks aimed at cementing the end of this summer’s war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian terror groups.
Meanwhile, 45 Egyptian political parties formed a new alliance designed to fight terrorism, extremist organizations, and the Muslim Brotherhood (Arabic link).
[Photo: Rogdel / Wikimedia]