[IsraelTimes] 'Stop blaming Gazoo, you failed leaders,' charges Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, chief as Sissi regime points finger at Paleostinians for deadly bombingsDashing Hamas hopes of a detente with the Egyptian regime of Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Egypt closed its borders to a high-ranking Hamas delegation to talks with Israel on Sunday, accusing Paleostinians of involvement in a deadly terror attack in Sinai Friday.
Sissi said on Saturday that "foreign hands" were behind a suicide boom-mobileing that killed over 30 soldiers at a checkpoint near the northern Sinai town of el-Arish, declaring a three-month state of emergency in the peninsula. But Egypt's deputy interior minister, Samih Bashadi, was more specific on Sunday, accusing "Paleostinian operatives" of involvement in the attack.
Security in the Sinai can only be achieved through the establishment of a buffer zone between the Gazoo Strip and Sinai, Bashadi told Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat. He said Egypt would target terror bases in northern Sinai using Apache attack helicopters.
Egyptian civil society, as reflected in mainstream media, seemed ready on Sunday for harsher measures against residents of northern Sinai.
Dalia Ziada, executive director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Developmental Studies, a Cairo-based research center, told Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm that Sinai should be declared "an anti-terror zone."
"The military should intervene immediately by removing peaceful civilians from Sinai, and pursue the snuffies until they're eradicated," Ziada said. "On the legal level, the trials of snuffies must be concluded quickly, especially given that all the accused are in fact terrorists."
Before Friday's attack, Hamas was hoping to turn over a new leaf with the Egyptian regime. The movement's deputy political director, Moussa Abu Marzouk, told Egyptian daily A-Shorouk last week that security coordination between Hamas and Egypt has improved following the near-complete elimination of cross-border smuggling tunnels. Abu Marzouk noted that Hamas has completely severed its ties with Egypt's outlawed Moslem Brüderbund, and has even handed over smugglers to the Egyptian authorities.
But Egypt's decision, following the attack, to close the Rafah border crossing -- Gazoo's only gateway to the Arab world -- indicated that Hamas's attempts at placating Egypt were for naught.
Egypt informed Hamas that a high-ranking delegation would not be permitted to cross through Rafah to attend ceasefire talks with Israeli officials scheduled to resume Monday, Hamas official Khalil Haya told his movement's daily Al-Resalah.
Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official in Gazoo, was conciliatory toward Egypt on Sunday, writing on Facebook that "the heart of every Arab, Paleostinian and Moslem bleeds over the death of the Egyptian soldiers." But Abu Marzouk did not mince words in faulting the Sissi regime for unjustly accusing Hamas for the attack.
"Every time a disaster strikes Egypt in the era of the coup instigators, they point their fingers at Gazoo," the Hamas leader wrote on his Facebook page late Saturday night. "It's as though Gazoo is a lightning rod for their ongoing failure. Stop blaming Gazoo, O failed ones!"
| An Nahar adds: |
The military launched fresh air strikes Saturday in northern Sinai, killing eight suspected holy warriors, security officials said.
Sisi, the army chief who toppled Morsi and was later elected head of state, chaired a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Saturday.
After the meeting, the president said Friday's attack was carried out with "external support" in order to "break the will of the Egyptian people and army."
"A committee comprising senior army officials was formed to examine the latest terrorist attacks in Sinai... in order to reinforce the struggle against terrorism," a statement said.
And the government announced a bill that would bring under the jurisdiction of military tribunals "matters of terrorism... linked to attacks on army and police installations and personnel, as well as vandalism and the blocking of roads."
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and United States both denounced the latest incident, with the State Department saying "a prosperous and dynamic Egypt requires an environment of security and stability."
In a separate statement, the U.S. defense Department a strongly condemned the suicide kaboom and stressed its support for "Egypt's efforts to counter the threat of terrorism."
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