From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Hamas continues to help IS in Sinai
Several days after last week’s major terror attack in the Sinai Peninsula, Hamas continues to take Islamic State’s wounded for treatment in Gazan hospitals. The wounded are taken through tunnels connecting Gaza and Sinai and controlled by the military wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades.
The Gaza group is making effort to hide from Egypt the fact that it is transferring IS fighters for treatment. Most of the wounded were hurt during the massive attack by Islamic State fighters on Egyptian army positions. According to several sources, the military wing’s leader, including Mohammed Deif, Marwan Issa and others, are all aware of the cooperation with Islamic State and receive constant updates.
Last week, immediately after the large-scale IS attack in Sinai, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, revealed that according to Israel’s intelligence, senior officials in the military wing of Hamas support IS people in Wallayat Sinai, the “Sinai Region” wing of the terror group.
Mordechai named Wa’il Faraj, a commander in the Qassam Brigades, as one of those who smuggled wounded IS fighters from the Sinai to Gaza. But Mordechai was discussing the situation before the attack. It is now known that the military continued to smuggle wounded fighters after the attack and after Israel’s accusations on the issue.
Intelligence estimates in Egypt and Israel say that the number of IS casualties at the hands of Egyptian soldiers reached 250 and that the movement failed in its main goal – taking over territory in the northeastern Sinai. A Times of Israel inquiry found that Egypt had previous knowledge on Islamic State’s intention to carry out a wide-scale attack against the Egyptian army.
Additionally, Egypt is well aware that the military wing of Hamas is collecting intelligence on the Egyptian army’s deployment along the Gaza Strip border, in order to examine the possibility of continuing to smuggle arms and fighters from Sinai and to Sinai.
— Avi Issacharoff
The Times of Israel Community.