Hamas denies involvement in deaths of Egyptian soldiers

Zahar calls the Egyptian reports ‘baseless’ and ‘mere fabrications’ Hamas leader and co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar has denied media reports suggesting Qassam Brigades fighters killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in Rafah last September. The Hamas official meanwhile accused the al-Ahram al-Arabi magazine, which first printed the reports, as “collaborating with Israel.”
The Qassam militants alleged to have killed Egyptian soldiers on the border with the Gaza Strip never left the coastal territory, Zahar said.
“Hamas did not receive any contact with Egyptian security forces over the issue,” he claimed. “All charges against Hamas are baseless and mere fabrications aiming to drive a wedge between Hamas and Egypt.”
Al-Ahram al-Arabi’s editor-in-chief Ashraf Badr meanwhile claimed: “We got this information from a senior figure within Hamas before corroborating it with our security sources in Egypt.”
Egyptian channel MBC Egypt meanwhile reported it had exclusively obtained the names of those responsible for the Rafah incident, in which 16 Egyptian soldiers were killed in September.
Among those names was Raed al-Attar, the alleged mastermind of the Gilad Shalit kidnapping operation and Ayman Nofal, a prominent figure in the Qassam Brigades.
The attack was reportedly carried out in vengeance for Egyptian security forces’ operation to demolish cross-border tunnels used for arms smuggling and trade.