Egyptian media is reporting that Egyptian authorities have begun an an investigation into the activities of Muslim Brotherhood members who are said to have provided military and financial aid to Hamas.. According to a report by the newspaper Al Masry Alyoum:
The Supreme State Security Prosecution began an investigation on Friday into accusations that members of the Muslim Brotherhood have provided aid to the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and met with top Hamas leaders over the past two months. A report by State Security Investigations revealed that State Security forces arrested four men, including one Palestinian, in Rafah after they attempted to enter Egypt through tunnels that pass under the border and into Gaza. Rafah straddles the Egypt-Gaza border. The report, labeled Supreme State Security Report 404/2010, claims that some elements of the Muslim Brotherhood formed an organizational center dedicated to promoting armed struggle against Israel and conducting military training in conjunction with the Hamas leadership in Gaza. The report accuses the detained of cooperating with Hamas to manufacture devices for remote detonations and assisting the armed Islamic group in its attempts to monitor Israeli planes and Israel’s armed forces. It says that the accused individuals sneaked into Gaza, met with Hamas leadership to review developments in Gaza and participated in military training. The report also claims that the accused men collected donations in Egypt in the name of supporting the Palestinian people and then presented the donations to Hamas after setting aside a portion of the monies to fund their own activities. The investigation report alleges that the accused received money from Hamas to purchase wireless electronic equipment upon their return to Egypt, with the goal of smuggling the equipment into the Gaza Strip via the cross-border tunnels. The plan was foiled when the accused were arrested by State Security as they returned to Egypt, according to the report. State Security arrested the four men in April. The accused were transferred to the prosecution three days ago after the security services completed their investigation. A number of other members and leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood are still State Security’s custody and will likely be indicted under similar charges.
The Hamas charter states that it is ” is one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and an Israeli TV station has reported that in 2008, Muslim Brotherhood “representatives” traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the open border to meet with Hamas. An earlier media report indicated that shortly after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives were present to review Hamas military formations. Last June, a Hamas journalist acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons.