The Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has published a useful summary report on Egypt’s recent pressure on Hamas to sever its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The report begins:
“1. On March 6, 2016, Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, the Egyptian minister of the interior, held a press conference where heaccused Hamas of involvement in the assassination of Hisham Barakat, the Egyptian attorney general. Egypt alleged the assassination was carried out by the Muslim Brotherhood. According to Abdel Ghaffar, Muslim Brotherhood operatives suspected of complicity in the assassination admitted they had been trained by Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip for six weeks (Al-Youm Al-Sabaa, March 7, 2016).[1]
2. In an attempt to defuse the situation and regulate its relations with Egypt, the Hamas movement sent a delegation of twelve senior figures to Egypt, the first visit of its kind since Operation Protective Edge. On March 12, 2016, the members of the delegation met with Khaled Fawzy, the head of Egyptian General Intelligence. The meeting apparently did not have a practical outcome. Another meeting was held with senior Egyptian General Intelligence officials on March 27, 2016. At that meeting the Egyptian authorities apparently exerted pressure on Hamas to stop its support of jihadist operatives and to sever all ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, accused by the Egyptian regime of involvement in the anti-Egyptian terrorist campaign. Hamas’ Response
3. The Egyptian accusations of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and the demand that Hamas sever its ties with them touched a nerve for Hamas. Since its founding, Hamas has been joined at the hip the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, both ideologically and practically, and maintains contacts with the movement at varying levels of overtness and intensity (see below). On the other hand, Hamas is forced to find a publicly acceptable response that will enable it to reduce Egyptian pressure and rehabilitate bilateral relations with Egypt.”
Read the rest here.
The GMBDW reported last month on some of these same events.
The Hamas charter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and soon after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the newly-opened border to review Hamas military formations. A Hamas journalist has acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and Hamas is known to be supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood.