GAZA PM DISMISSES REPORTS OF 'SINAI DEAL' WITH MORSI

Rafah, 13 Dzulhijjah 1434/19 September 2013 (MINA) – The prime minister of the Hamas-led Gaza government,Ismail Haniyah dismissed the reports of a “deal” struck with the administration of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to relocate the people of Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“Since 1953, Palestinians have rejected all proposals for resettlement in Sinai as they will not accept any alternative to their homeland [in historical Palestine],” Haniyeh told reporters during an official visit to the border town of Rafah.

“All such reports are lies and are devoid of truth,” he said of the Egyptian media allegations, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Thursday.

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Morsi, who was ousted by Egypt’s powerful army on July 3, faces charges of “conspiring” with Haniyeh’s Gaza-based Hamas movement to carry out “hostile acts” in Egypt, attack police facilities and break out of prison during the 2011 uprising that toppled longstanding President Hosni Mubarak.

On Sunday, Egyptian army spokesman Ahmed Ali told a press conference that explosives found in the possession of “terrorists” in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula bore the tag of Hamas’ military wing, the Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades.

The allegations come amid local media claims that Hamas is involved in Sinai-based “militancy” and that it is training fighters from the Muslim Brotherhood – the Islamist group from which Morsi hails and with which Hamas is ideologically affiliated.

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Hamas, for its part, strenuously denies the claims.

“Hamas does not interfere in Egyptian affairs; no Palestinian can start a fight with Egypt,” Haniyeh said, accusing Egyptian media of waging a smear campaign against Gaza and the Gaza-based resistance group.

Haniyeh also dismissed claims by Ali that the army had found explosives planted on an Egyptian border watchtower replete with wires extending to the Gaza Strip, from which the charge could be remotely detonated.

“I was contacted by an Egyptian intelligence official on this issue,” Haniyeh said. “I assigned Gaza’s Interior Minister Fathi Hamad to contact all factions in Gaza, all of which denied involvement. (T/P09/P04).

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)