Feb. 2, 2015

On Sunday, Egypt became the first Arab country to designate Hamas faction Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades a terrorist group.The court that made the designation accused the Hamas faction of launching terrorist attacks to support the Muslim Brotherhood andexecuting a bombing that killed 33 security personnel in Sinai in October 2014. The court ruling further isolates Hamas politically. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government has labeled a terrorist group since 2013. Under Sisi’s leadership, security coordination and collaboration between Israel and Egypt has greatly increased as the two countries share the common interest of defeating radical Islamist terrorists like Hamas and various Sinai-based groups. In March 2014, an Egyptian court forbade Hamas activities in Egypt, accusing  the terrorist group of smuggling weapons and fighters to Ansar Beit al Maqdis, a group now loyal to ISIS thatclaimed responsibility for major attacks against over a dozen army and police targets in Sinai last Thursday. The Sisi regime has alsolaunched a campaign  to shut down the vast majority of underground tunnels from Sinai to Gaza that are often used by Hamas to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip and fighters into Sinai. Egypt has begunexpanding the buffer zone on the border of Egypt and Gaza, in an effort to prevent the flow of fighters and weapons between Sinai and Gaza.Furthermore, according to a Reuters report last year, Egypt is attempting to politically undermine Hamas rule in Gaza by working with Fatah to support anti-Hamas protests and activities in the Gaza Stip. According to the report, an anonymous Egyptian security official reportedly said “We cannot get liberated from the terrorism of the Brotherhood in Egypt without ending it in Gaza, which lies on our borders.”