Following the raid, in which attackers killed 16 Egyptian border guards in northern Sinai, which also borders Israel, Egypt asked Hamas for information about members of a Salafist group in Gaza suspected of involvement, according to an Egyptian security official.
"Investigations conducted by the government and continuous contacts with Egyptian officials show that there is no relationship between the Gaza Strip and the bloody attack" in northern Sinai, Hamas interior ministry spokesman Ihab al-Ghussein said in a statement published by Hamas-run Palestine newspaper.
"There is ongoing coordination and contacts at all levels between the Palestinian government in Gaza and the Egyptian leadership," he said, denying Egyptian media reports that Gaza Palestinians were implicated in the attack, which has created tensions between Hamas and Cairo`s new government.
Following the Sinai incident, Gaza Salafist groups condemned arrests of their members by Hamas security services.
On August 7 the Egyptian military launched "operation Sinai," killing dozens of what it called "terrorists" or "criminal elements" of undisclosed nationality, in its largest deployment in the lawless peninsula since Israel withdrew in 1982.
The Egyptian government had always struggled with militancy and smuggling in the region but lost its grip there after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak early last year, prompting the collapse of his discredited police force and allowing the militants to flourish. (M014)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
