An Egyptian diplomat told Egypt’s weekly Al-Ahram newspaper that Hamas’s militant extremism, together with that of Hizbollah and other radical Islamist groups, are preventing peace with Israel:
“Hamas and other Islamist groups are only acting to serve an Islamist and not a national interest. We cannot tolerate this. We certainly cannot tolerate what we have evidence to believe it is a coordinated effort between Hamas and other radical Islamic groups in the region — not necessarily ISIS but certainly Hizbollah, which is a militant group.”
Egypt knows Islamist extremism first-hand, having fought with the country’s Muslim Brotherhood for years.
Battles in Sinai with Egyptian members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, who loyal to the Islamic State, occurred last month.
Egypt demolished hundreds of homes along the border with Rafah as it continued to hunt for members of Ansar Beit al-Maqdis as well as remove Hamas’s smuggling tunnels from the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza.
