An Egyptian court listed the Palestinian resistance group Hamas as a terrorist organization, judicial and security sources said on Saturday, one month after a judge listed the group’s armed wing as a terrorist group.
“The court ruled that Hamas should be included as a terrorist organization,” said Samir Sabry, one of the lawyers who brought the case against Hamas resistance movement, World Bulletin reported.
Hamas called the decision “shocking and dangerous” in a statement.
“The Egyptian court’s decision to list the Hamas movement as a terror organization is shocking and is dangerous, and it targets the Palestinian people and its factions of resistance,” the statement said. “It will have no influence on the Hamas movement, which enjoys the respect of the entire nation and the leaders of the nation.”
While the January decision against Hamas targeted only the armed wing, Saturday’s broader ruling could have greater consequences for the already strained relations between Cairo and Hamas, which is based in Gaza Strip along Egypt’s border.
A source close to Hamas’ armed wing signaled the group would no longer accept Egypt as a broker between it and Israel after the January decision against Hamas’ Qassam Brigades armed wing.
Cairo had for many years played a central role in engineering ceasefires between Israel and Hamas, including a truce reached between the sides in August that ended a 50-day war in Gaza.
