Hamas Continues to Aid Terrorism in Egypt

Egypt has accused the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas of training Muslim Brotherhood members to carry out a bombing that killed Egypt’s top prosecutor, Hisham Barakat, last year. Barakat was the most senior official in Egypt to be killed since the Muslim Brotherhood’s insurgency began in 2013.

Egypt’s interior minister linked the plot to kill Barakat to exiled Muslim Brotherhood members in Turkey working with Hamas in Gaza. Hamas has denied any responsibility in last summer’s bombing.

Since the accusation, 48 Muslim Brotherhood supporters suspected to be plotting to kill various government officials were arrested. 14 of these 48 are suspected to have been involved in the murder of Barakat.

Barakat was responsible for the prosecution of thousands of Egyptian Islamists, and prior to his assassination, Barakat received numerous death threats.

The insurgency within Egypt began when former President Mohammed Morsi was removed from power by current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Since this ousting, the El-Sisi government has been involved in an ever-escalating conflict with several Islamist groups around the country, especially the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood-led opposition accuses the government of manufacturing the accusations in order to eliminate critics, while the government believes the Muslim Brotherhood is responsible for the wave of terrorism engulfing Egypt since Morsi’s ousting.

The Muslim Brotherhood has claimed on numerous occasions that they remain a nonviolent actor, but there is evidence they may be aiding other groups to carry out violent acts.

Hamas is a Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in 1987, the organization’s primary goal is to bring about the destruction of Israel. To better increase its ability to combat the Israelis, Hamas established itself as one of the major political parties in the Palestinian territories, and since 2007 it has been dominated politics in the region. Hamas has repeatedly maintained its ties with the parent organization, and following Morsi’s election to President, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh described Hamas as the “jihadi movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, with a Palestinian face”.

This link to the Muslim Brotherhood makes a highly convincing argument that Hamas was involved with Barakat’s murder. Egypt accusations of the group’s involvement in the attack may harm Egypt-Hamas relations just when they were improving.

Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ foreign relations chief, stated Hamas has never allowed for anyone to harm Egypt’s security in the past and will not allow anyone to do so in the future. However, the Egyptian military recently found tunnels large enough to fit a truck through coming from Gaza to the Sinai.

Last June an Egyptian appeals court overruled the decision to list Hamas as a terrorist organization, citing the lower courts lack of jurisdiction to label the group in this manner. However, Egypt is now reconsidering its stance on the matter. This poses a great threat to Hamas.

With the evidence that Hamas was implicated in the assassination of Barakat and the continuous tunnel building in the Sinai, Egypt is likely to find little reason to not label Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Turkey has placed Israel’s ending of the blockade on Gaza as part of its demands in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel. Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood have a close relationship in years past and Turkey has served as a home to exiled Hamas leaders. When Iran’s aid towards Hamas began to decline following a disagreement over Iran’s activities in Syria, Turkey stepped up to become a major benefactor.

If Egypt decides to declare Hamas as a terrorist organization, it will hamper Turkish efforts to the Gaza blockade, but it is unlikely to end Turkey’s aid to the terror group. Hamas may hide under the cover of a Palestinian faction, but it true loyalty remains with the Muslim Brotherhood, and its unlikely to alter its willingness to aid the MB in Egypt by whatever means necessary.