Hamas delegation heads to Cairo amid tension

3/12/2016 6:48:18 PM

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) >A Hamas delegation on Saturday morning set out from the blockaded Gaza Strip to Egyptian capital Cairo via the Rafah border crossing.

According to a source at Gaza’s Hamas-run border authority the delegation includes Mahmoud al-Zahar Khalil al-Hayya Imad al-Alami and Nizar Awadallah -- all members of Hamas’ political bureau.

On Thursday a source close to Hamas told Anadolu Agency that several leading group members -- both from within the Gaza Strip and from abroad -- would arrive in Cairo in the days ahead.

The source who insisted on anonymity said the delegation would visit Egypt "soon" -- he did not provide an exact date -- in response to an invitation extended by the Egyptian intelligence apparatus.

At a Monday press conference Hamas spokesman Salah al-Bardawil said that contacts were being conducted between Khaled Meshal head of the group’s political bureau and Khaled Fawzy head of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate.

One day earlier Egyptian Interior Minister Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar had accused Hamas of training "elements" of Egypt’s now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood who he claimed had been involved in the assassination last year of Egyptian Attorney-General Hisham Barakat.

Both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood have denied the claims.

The Brotherhood has been the target of a relentless crackdown by the Egyptian authorities since the army ousted Mohamed Morsi -- Egypt’s first freely elected president and a Brotherhood leader -- in a 2013 military coup.

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