Wilyat Sinai, the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State, has threatened Hamas and Egyptian intelligence forces in an announcement issued Monday as Hamas officials met in Cairo with Egyptian leaders.
The delegation from Hamas set out to Egypt on the first visit abroad by Hamas’ new leader, Ismail Haniyeh, since his election in May.
In the announcement, which was also distributed in a number of sites in Sinai, IS also took responsibility for the attack yesterday that killed 20 Egyptian soldiers in the peninsula.
The organization wrote in the statement, “We emphasize that the recent agreements between the infidel Egyptian intelligence and the leadership of Hamas, which has abandoned Islam – these agreements are meant to tighten the siege against the soldiers of the caliphate. These agreements will be to no avail.”
The organization continued, threating, “What’s expected to come is even harder. What we said yesterday, you saw today with your own eyes. We say to the gangs of Hamas, which have abandoned Islam, and the Egyptian army’s collaborators – we say to them, remove your hands from the mujahedeen because otherwise the punishment will be tremendous.”
The Hamas leadership visiting in Egypt reportedly reached agreements with Egyptian intelligence chiefs that terror group’s security forces would tighten control in the border area and increase the presence of forces in the area between the Gaza Strip and Sinai in order to stop the infiltration of jihadists from the Gaza Strip into Sinai.
