| Killings ‘hit’ Hamas-Egypt ties |
RAFAH An attack by Sinai militants that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers has brought a swift end to the honeymoon between Hamas rulers and Egypt’s new Islamist president, analysts say. Following the election of Mohamed Mursi in June, relations with Hamas had appeared to get off to a good start, with the Egyptian leader taking steps in the past few weeks to ease the restrictions on the Egypt-Gaza border. But everything changed on Sunday night, when gunmen killed 16 Egyptian guards in Sinai, with sources in Cairo suggesting the attackers had come from Gaza.
Although Hamas swiftly condemned the bloodshed and moved to close down the network of tunnels running under the border, its relations with Cairo were “were seriously damaged and will need a lot of time to recover,” says political analyst Mukhaimer Abu Saada.
The “honeymoon phase” between Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Mursi “didn’t last long” because of “popular and military pressure on Mursi” which is likely to cause him to backtrack on pledges to extend the opening hours at the Rafah border crossing, according to Abu Saada.
But the effect “will not last long if proven that no one in Gaza was involved,” says Abu Saada, a political science professor at Al Azhar University in Gaza City.
Deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad has said Hamas is holding “intensive” discussions with Cairo to “contain the repercussions of the terror attack” and to avoid a “humanitarian crisis” likely to be brought on by the closure of the tunnels, which provide a life line to the Gaza Strip. But experts believe Egypt will destroy the tunnels, which are causing it a major security headache.
Political scientist Walid Al Mudalal says the Sinai attack “gives reasonable grounds to Egyptian authorities to open Rafah crossing,” to avoid the dangers of unregulated passage through tunnels.
Agence France-Presse
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