A senior Hamas official on Monday denied media reports that Egypt has cut relations with his movement. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said in a press statement that Hamas had not been officially informed of the decision.Early on Saturday, the Egyptian daily Almesryoon reported that Cairo had decided to reject requests by Hamas officials for entry visas and freeze all channels of communication with the movement. The daily quoted senior Egyptian officials as saying that the decision is part of a series of steps in response to what the Egyptians called a “Hamas media defamation campaign against Egypt.'
The officials added that the severing of ties is not related to the failure of Egyptian-mediated talks to reconcile Hamas and Fatah, but comes as a response to “the organized media campaign that Hamas officials are waging against Egyptian figures by defaming them in Arab satellite television stations and in the Arab media.' According to the report, the Egyptians say the public campaign is being led by the movement's senior officials, including Khaled Mashaal, Mohammed Nazzal, Ismail Haniyeh and Mahmoud Al-Zahhar.
Tensions between Hamas and Egypt has been escalating in recent months and is rooted in Egypt's consistent refusal to open the Rafah crossing, its construction of a steel fence on the Gaza border and its clampdown on smuggling tunnels.
Abu Zuhri also denied any media escalation between Hamas and Egypt saying the “matter is just a media fabrication.' The Hamas spokesman, however, said that his movement “does not hide its distress over the conduct of Egyptian security forces. The army conduct led to the death of five Palestinians -- four in tunnels and a fisherman in a ship accident -- and the torture of Hamas prisoners in Egyptian jails, he said.
Last week, Hamas accused Egypt of spraying poisonous gas into one of the tunnels, which led to the death of four Palestinians. Also last week, Abu Zuhri accused Egypt of torturing 30 Palestinian detainees in its custody using electric shocks and prolonged hangings. Hamas also said that a Palestinian fisherman was killed when his boat collided with an Egyptian naval vessel in Egyptian waters. Gazans said the Egyptian sailors beat the fisherman to death with clubs and pipes. Shortly after the incident, another tense event took place when Hamas security forces announced they had defused a bomb near the Egyptian embassy in Gaza City, which has been inactive since Hamas took over the Strip in 2007.