Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Al-Monitor · 2013
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the dramatic Egypt-Hamas deterioration after Morsi's removal — tunnel closures, Rafah shutdown, media hostility — leaving Hamas diplomatically isolated with only Qatar and Turkey providing support insufficient to compensate for the Egyptian relationship's collapse.
Al-Monitor 2013 analysis of the dramatic Egypt-Hamas deterioration after Morsi's removal — tunnel closures, Rafah shutdown, media hostility — leaving Hamas…
Editorial summary — the full article is published by Al-Monitor and cannot be reproduced here. What follows is an account of the subject written afterwards, not the original text.
Egyptian-Hamas relations in 2013 underwent a dramatic shift following the military's removal of President Morsi in July. The el-Sisi government's designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization — or at minimum its treatment of Hamas as an extension of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood — transformed the political landscape for Gaza. Egypt moved aggressively to close the Sinai tunnels, eliminating a major source of Gaza's goods supply and Hamas's tax revenue. Rafah crossing remained largely shut. Egyptian media portrayed Hamas as complicit in attacks on Egyptian soldiers. The deterioration was rapid and severe: within months of Morsi's removal, the Hamas-Egypt relationship had gone from the relative warmth of ideological kinship to active hostility. Gaza's population suffered the economic consequences directly. Hamas found itself diplomatically isolated — at odds with Egypt, still boycotted by the U.S. and EU, with Qatar and Turkey providing political support but unable to compensate for the Egypt relationship's collapse.
Topic: Regional & International Politics — Egypt · Hamas · diplomacy · Rafah — Text © Al-Monitor — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source