AFTER overthrowing the Mursi presidency at home to stop a workers revolution, the Egyptian army is planning to undermine the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which runs the neighbouring Gaza Strip, senior Egyptian security officials have said.
The aim, which the officials say could take years to pull off, includes working to stop any Fatah-Hamas reconciliation, and the emergence of a national unity government and supporting anti-Hamas activities in Gaza, security and diplomatic officials are saying.
Since it seized power in Egypt last summer from Mursi, Egypt’s military has squeezed Gaza’s economy by destroying most of the 1,200 tunnels used to smuggle food, cars and weapons into Gaza, which is under an Israeli blockade.
Now Cairo is becoming even more ambitious in its drive against Hamas and its sister organisations.
Intelligence operatives, with help from Hamas’s political rivals and activists, plan to undermine the credibility of Hamas, which took control of Gaza in elections in 2007 after a brief battle against the Fatah movement led by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
According to the Egyptian officials, Hamas will face growing resistance by activists who will launch protests similar to those in Egypt that have led to the downfall of two presidents since the Arab Spring in 2011. Cairo plans to support such protests in an effort to cripple Hamas.
‘Gaza is next,’ said one senior security official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. ‘We cannot get liberated from the terrorism of the Brotherhood in Egypt without ending it in Gaza, which lies on our borders.’
Asked why Egyptian intelligence is not going after Hamas now, another senior security official said: ‘Their day will come.’
Egypt accuses Hamas of backing al-Qaeda-linked militant groups which have stepped up attacks against security forces in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula over the past few months. The attacks have spread to Cairo and other cities.
Hamas denies accusations of terrorism.
Former Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi is now on trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters during his presidency. Egypt’s military-backed government has cracked down hard on the Brotherhood, arresting almost its entire leadership and thousands of its backers as well as formally declaring it a terrorist organisation.
But the situation is very different in Gaza, where Hamas, is heavily armed, has years of experience fighting Israel, and is a major part of the Palestinian revolution.
A Hamas official said the comments made by Egyptian officials showed Cairo was inciting violence and trying to provoke chaos.
‘We reaffirm that Hamas did not and never would intervene in internal Egyptian affairs,’ Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. ‘No one should ever dream to weaken Hamas.’
So far, contacts between Egypt and Fatah have been limited to discussing ways to help Fatah undermine Hamas, said the officials. However Fatah remains committed to reconciliation with Hamas and the organisation of a National Unity government.
‘There is a lot of anger in Gaza. People are suffering, but there are no mass protests. We cannot hope that Hamas will vanish tomorrow,’ said one Fatah official.
Hamas has an estimated 20,000 fighters, with another 20,000 in its police and security forces. Despite growing economic hardship in Gaza, the group can still draw on a big support from among the territory’s 1.8 million people.
But Egyptian officials hope to exploit tensions with rival militant groups, even if there are no signs of major splits yet.
‘We know that Hamas is powerful and armed but we also know that there are other armed groups in Gaza that are not on good terms with Hamas and they could be used to face Hamas,’ another Egyptian security source said.
‘All people want is to eat, drink and have a decent living, and if a government, armed or not, fails to provide that, then the people will rise against it in the end,’ the source said.
In early January, Cairo publicly hosted the first conference of a new anti-Hamas youth group called Tamarud, or rebel, the same name used by the Egyptian revolutionary youth movement that led last year’s protests against Mursi.
Members of the Palestinian ‘Tamarud’ stood with the Palestinian flag wrapped around their necks to highlight what they called Hamas’s crimes against activists in Gaza.
The event was attended by representatives from Egyptian liberal parties.
The activists showed video clips of masked gunmen chasing and dragging away protesters, and posted banners showing activists who they said had been tortured by Hamas for their opposition.
The Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights last year accused Hamas of orchestrating a fierce crackdown against activists suspected of trying to organise a Tamarud-like protest in November. It said some of those detained were tortured and the mooted rally never materialised.
Hamas has accused Tamarud members of being Israeli agents, but has denied allegations of torture.
Activists in Cairo have called for protests in Gaza on March 21.
However, the mass of Palestinians want a united Palestinian movement, reconciliation and a national unity government.
Egyptian officials hope that future Hamas crackdowns may turn the tide against the movement’s leadership.
‘Surely, the world will not stand still and allow Hamas to kill Palestinians. Someone will interfere,’ said the Egyptian security official. ‘But so far we are only working on firing the first spark.’
The same Egyptian officials are saying nothing about the daily killings of Palestinians, in Gaza and the West Bank by the Israeli security forces.
But officials also concede that their plan is likely to take years.
‘The aid Egypt will mainly provide to the anti-Hamas groups will be logistical not financial. "Tamaruds" don’t cost much,’ one Egyptian security official said.
The plan to undermine Hamas reflects renewed confidence among Egypt’s security forces after being sidelined following the fall of long-time president Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Senior security officials are now determined to eliminate their Islamist foes for good – inside and outside Egypt, as well as take action against the Palestinian revolution.
Despite being appointed by Mursi, the Egyptian military leaders were angry when Mursi became the first Egyptian president to meet Hamas leaders in the presidential palace. Mursi also sent his prime minister to Gaza on the second day of an Israeli offensive on the enclave in November 2012.
Mursi’s administration did acknowledge the problem posed by the tunnels under the border between Egypt and Gaza. His national security adviser last year said the government was flooding a number of tunnels he described as illegal.
But the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza was kept open for much of Mursi’s rule, allowing vital food and goods to flow into Gaza.
When 18 million workers rose up against Mursi’s attacks on the working class, and the trade unions, the army felt that it had no option but to overthrow him, or else face a working class revolution.
The army chiefs then began taking measures to help imperialism control the Palestinian revolution.
After Mursi’s overthrow, the army took over command of the Sinai and started destroying hundreds of tunnels. No Hamas official has been allowed to travel into Egypt since then.
Gaza prime minister and Hamas deputy leader Ismail Haniyeh has said repeatedly since July that his group is focused exclusively on confronting arch-foe Israel and has no armed presence in Egypt.
‘We do not intervene in Egyptian internal affairs,’ he told supporters last month. ‘Egypt cannot do without us and we cannot do without Egypt. This historical, geographic and security link can never be severed.’
The Egyptian military, whatever its rhetoric, is in fact suppressing the Palestinian revolution with its attack on Hamas and attempts to foil any Hamas-Fatah reconciliation and the formation of a new government of national unity.
The Egyptian military receives over $1bn a year aid from the USA.
It is now playing its part in holding back the Palestinian revolution with its attempts to permanently split the Palestinian movement, and overthrow Hamas, so that imperialism and Zionism can carve up Palestine in exactly the way that they want.
The Palestinian movement must unite to prevent this taking place, and to establish the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, with all Zionist settle-ments liquidated, with Palestinian refugees having the right to return, and with the officials and armed forces of Palestine having full control over all of its borders and border posts.