An Egyptian court's decision to list Hamas as a terrorist organisation is a “big shame that taunts Egypt’s reputation,” a spokesman for the group said on Saturday.
Spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri's comments are the first reaction by Hamas to the Cairo court Saturday ruling designating the de facto rulers of the bordering Gaza strip as a terrorist group.
“The Egyptian court decision...is shocking, critical and targets the Palestinian people and Palestinian resistance forces,” Abu Zuhri said on his official Facebook page.
“It reverses the equation, making the occupation a friend and the Palestinian people an enemy.”
It is a “desperate attempt to export Egypt’s internal crises and will not have any effect on Hamas’s standing among all the sons and leaders of the nation,” Abu Zuhri added.
The ruling by the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters on Saturday comes a month after the group's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, was also designated a terror group by the same court.
The relationship between Egypt's authorities and Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood’s sister organisation in Gaza, soured after the ouster of Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Egypt has accused Hamas of meddling into its internal affairs and supporting Islamist insurgents in Sinai.
Hamas has denied these accusations.
Egypt's cabinet declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group in December 2013, and the authorities have since charged many Brotherhood members with offences including supporting terrorism.
