Israeli media is reporting that a Hamas official has denied reports alleging coordination between the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas during the early days of the revolution in 2011. According to a Times of Israel report:
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April 28, 2013 A Hamas official has denied Egyptian media reports claiming that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood coordinated its operations with Hamas during the first days of the popular uprising in January 2011.
Independent Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Friday that five telephone conversations were recorded between Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood official Khairat Shater, a presidential candidate and deputy head of the organization, and Hamas officials during the early days of the revolution.
According to the report, the telephone conversations included tactical coordination between Hamas and its ideological equivalent in Egypt, with Hamas warning the Muslim Brotherhood against committing ’mistakes.’ Transcripts of the conversations were given to Shater by General Khaled Tharwat, former head of the State Security Investigation Service (SSI), a branch of Egypt’s ministry of the interior.
But Hamas official Moussa Abu-Marzouk denied that any phone conversations took place between Hamas and Brotherhood officials during the early days of the Egyptian revolution.
The Hamas charter says that it is “one of the wings of the Muslim Brothers in Palestine” and soon after Hamas took over the Gaza strip, Muslim Brotherhood representatives traveled to Gaza from Egypt through the newly-opened border to review Hamas military formations. A Hamas journalist has acknowledged the role that the “international Muslim Brotherhood” has played in providing funds for the purchase of weapons and Hamas is known to be supported financially and politically by the global Muslim Brotherhood. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman revealed that a coalition of London-based Muslim groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, were behind the mass demonstrations staged to protest Israeli actions in the 2008 Gaza war and the Global Muslim Brotherhood and its Turkish affiliates were also intimately involved, along with the Turkish government, in the June 2010 Gaza flotilla that was involved in a violent altercation with Israeli naval forces.
