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Suspects who murdered Egypt's attorney general not Hamas members: official

Xinhua, March 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

A senior Islamic Hamas movement's official said Monday that the suspects who murdered Egypt's Attorney General Hisham Barakat are not members of the movement.

Salah el-Bardaweel, a Gaza senior Hamas leader, told a news briefing in Gaza city that the Egyptian suspects "have never ever been in the Gaza Strip before and they are not related to Hamas and they are not members of it."

"The Egyptian accusations that Hamas has been involved in killing Hisham Barakat are untrue and contradict with reality," he said, adding that "Hamas condemn such accusations and such political targeting of our people and our resistance."

El-Bardaweel added that the Egyptian interior minister's accusations that Hamas plotted the killing of the attorney general and was behind killing him "are made as ties between Hamas and Egypt has been recovering."

"Our position is strict and clear and we repeated it so many times that it is not in our ideologies, strategies and philosophies to intervene into either Egypt or any other Arab state's internal affairs or disputes," he said.

On Sunday, Hamas denied Egyptian interior minister Magdi Abdel Ghaffar's accusation of the Islamic movement for being involved in murdering former Attorney General of Egypt Hisham Barakat.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in an emailed press statement that the movement was surprised of the Egyptian official's remarks on accusing the movement of being involved in murdering Barakat, adding that "it is untrue."

"The accusations don't fit with the exerted efforts to develop ties with Cairo," he said, adding that "the Egyptian officials should bear more responsibility and avoid involving the Palestinian factions into Egypt's internal disputes."

Earlier on Sunday, Abdel Ghaffar told a news briefing in Cairo that Hamas has a big role in executing the plan of assassinating counselor Barakat in June last year, and supervised the operation from the beginning to the end.

Local reports had said several days ago that a high-ranking delegation representing several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, will head soon for talks in Cairo to meet with senior Egyptian officials.

The reports also said the Palestinian delegation was scheduled to discuss a series of questions, including the crisis of the closure of Rafah crossing point on the borders between Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Ties between Hamas and Egypt got tensed after Hamas was accused of being involved in feeding terrorists in carrying out armed attacks against the Egyptian army in the Peninsula of Sinai.

Ties basically deteriorated after the ouster of Egyptian Islamic President Mohamed Morsi in early July 2013, who belongs to the Muslim brothers Movement and kept good ties with Hamas in Gaza. Endit