HAMAS SAYS NO MEMBERS ARRESTED IN EGYPT

Gaza City, 12 Muharram 1436/5 November 2014 (MINA) – Palestinian resistance movement Hamas on Tuesday dismissed media reports that some of its members were arrested by Egyptian authorities over suspected involvement in a deadly attack in the country’s restive Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with the Gaza Strip.

“These are fabrications and lies issued by some newspapers as part of a smear campaign against the resistance in Gaza and against Hamas,” spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Anadolu Agency.

He also denied reports that there are group members who had gone missing in Egypt, according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reports quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA), Wednesday.

“Egypt has the right to preserve its security and arrest anyone who violates its sovereignty,” Abu Zuhri said. “But we reaffirm again that no Hamas members had been arrested or gone missing in Egypt.”

The denial came after Egyptian newspapers recently quoted military sources as saying that a number of Hamas members had been arrested or killed during a crackdown on militant hotbeds in Sinai following the October 24 attack on a military site in the peninsula.

The attack left 31 Egyptian troops dead and an equal number wounded in what observers say was the deadliest attack on the Egyptian military in recent years.

Following the attack, Egypt declared three days of national mourning and a three-month emergency in some parts of Sinai. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi also ordered the closure of the Rafah crossing until further notice.

Relations between Egypt and Hamas, an ideological offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, deteriorated when Egypt’s army ousted elected president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, in July 2013 following mass protests against him. (T/P3/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)