Hamas to contact Egypt over terrorist branding

Hamas has said it is making contact with Egyptian authorities to address the consequences of an Egyptian court ruling that branded the Palestinian militant faction a terrorist group.
 
Hamas’s political leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said while attending the funeral for senior Hamas founder Hamad al-Hasanat on Tuesday that his movement was initiating talks with Egypt to correct what he described as the “sin committed by the Egyptian court”.
 
Haniyeh described the court ruling issued last Saturday as a violation of Egypt’s historic principles on the Palestinian cause.
 
Anadolu Agency could not reach Egyptian officials for comment.
 
The Saturday ruling followed an earlier one branding the movement’s military wing, Ezz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.
 
Egyptian security has accused Hamas of involvement in bloody attacks against police and army forces in Sinai Peninsula since the ouster of former President Mohamed Morsy, a Hamas ally, in 2013.
 
Along with Morsy, some Hamas members are standing trial in absentia over charges of attacking Egyptian prisons to release allies and plotting attacks in Egypt during the 2011 uprising.