Seeking to secure Sinai, Egypt builds closer ties with Hamas
Cairo wants to restore its role as a regional power broker
After years of strained relations, Egypt is moving closer to Hamas in Gaza, offering concessions on trade and free movement in return for moves to secure the border against Daesh fighters who have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers in northern Sinai.
Egypt has been at odds with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, since a crackdown by Cairo on the armed group’s Islamist allies. Egypt closed the border, opening it only rarely.
But in recent weeks Egypt has eased restrictions, allowing in trucks laden with food and other supplies, and providing relief from an Israeli blockade that has restricted the flow of goods into the coastal territory.
The relaxation follows highlevel Hamas visits to Cairo, which wants to restore its role as a regional power broker and crush Daesh in the Sinai Peninsula, a strategic area bordering Gaza, Israel and the Suez Canal.
It builds on what Egyptian and Palestinian sources say are efforts by Hamas to prevent the movement of militants in and out of Sinai, where they have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police since general turned-president Abdul Fattah Al Sissi overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013.
Egyptian and Palestinian officials say the changes could signal a new era of closer cooperation after years of tension.
“We want cooperation in controlling the borders and tunnels, the handover of perpetrators of armed attacks and a boycott of the Muslim Brotherhood. They want the crossing to be opened and more trade,” one senior Egyptian security source said.“This has actually begun, but in a partial way. We hope will continue.”
While it doesn’t engage directly with Hamas, Israel is working with Egypt on border it security and monitoring of Gaza.
Military officials have voiced support for any steps that bring greater stability to northern Sinai and Gaza.
Hamas has increased security along its side of the border with Sinai over the past year, deploying hundreds of security forces and erecting more watchtowers. The group has also moved to round up Salafi radicals, who oppose an Egyptian-brokered 2014 ceasefire with Israel.
List of fugitives
Hamas, whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction but which has no ambitions for global terror, has not said how many militants it has captured and refuses to call them terrorists.
Egypt has given Hamas a list of about 85 fugitives, who it says are implicated in attacks and wants extradited, the Egyptian security source said. Hamas denied links with some of them and sources in the group said extraditions were unlikely though it might make its own inquiries.
Hamas has however let Egypt know that it has no interest in stoking unrest in an Arab neighbour that has mediated several truces with Israel and among rival Palestinian factions. “If we compare it with a year ago, the situation or the relationship is better but it is not yet what is needed,” Mahmoud Al Zahar, a senior Hamas official said.
The blossoming ties have been advanced by intense diplomacy, culminating last month in a visit by Esmail Haniyah, a deputy leader of Hamas, to meet Egyptian intelligence officials.
A series of conferences on Palestinian affairs have also taken place in Egypt in recent months attended by figures from Palestinian factions.