Egypt to relay Israeli ‘security messages’ to Hamas - report

Several messages are expected to be related via the Egyptians

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Hamas officials Husam Badran (C) and Khalil al-Hayya (2nd-R) attend a meeting with Palestinian factions in Gaza City on August 5, 2018 (photo credit: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
Hamas officials Husam Badran (C) and Khalil al-Hayya (2nd-R) attend a meeting with Palestinian factions in Gaza City on August 5, 2018
(photo credit: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
Egyptian intelligence officials are set to relay several messages from Israel to Hamas, some of them related to a possible prisoner exchange and efforts by the Gaza-based group to acquire advanced types of weapons, London-based pan-Arab The New Arab media outlet reported Sunday.
Israel had delivered “security messages” to the Egyptians so that they could raise them with Hamas leaders, who headed to Cairo on Sunday, the report said, quoting unnamed Egyptian sources.
“The Israeli side informed Egypt of intelligence information regarding efforts by Hamas’s military wing, Izz al-Din [Izzadin] al-Qassam Brigades, to introduce advanced types of weapons to the Gaza Strip that would change the balance of power,” it said.
Israel had informed the Egyptians that Hamas was trying to develop an air-defense system “that would change the situation in the next confrontations with Israel,” the report said.
Hamas on Sunday said two of its senior officials in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya and Rouhi Mushtaha, headed to Cairo through the Rafah border crossing for talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in the Gaza Strip and on latest political developments in the region.
Two other Hamas leaders, Saleh Arouri and Izzat al-Risheq, were also scheduled to arrive in Cairo within hours to join the talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.
The talks would deal with efforts to resolve the ongoing dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, Hamas said in a statement.
The Hamas leaders’ visit to Cairo is expected to ease tensions between the two sides, Palestinian sources said. Relations between Hamas and Egypt have been strained because of Hamas’s close ties with Turkey, Qatar and Iran, the sources added.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesperson in the Gaza Strip, said the talks with the Egyptian officials would focus on ways of boosting bilateral relations and achieving Palestinian “national unity.” They also would deal with the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” he said.


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