With the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt turns its wrathful gaze upon Hamas who has now lost its open door to the Sinai Peninsula, a crucial supply route for the terror group.

Many Palestinians say the group is getting just what it deserves.

By Aviel Schneider

The Hamas regime in Gaza has found itself cornered between Israel and a now-unfriendly Egypt. “This is precisely what traitor (Hamas) deserves,” a Palestinian from Ramallah told Israel Today. “We will never forget what Hamas has done to us back in 2007 (when the group violently seized control of Gaza. Hamas is a punishment for the Palestinian people.”

Hamas recruits

With the recent revolution in Egypt, Hamas has lost its last patron, President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, the ideological parent of Hamas. The new regime in Cairo under General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has taken aim not only at the Mulsim Brotherhood, but also at Hamas, which many Egyptians accuse of interfering in Egyptian affairs.

With the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has lost its open door to the Sinai Peninsula, a crucial supply route for the terror group.

In recent months, Egyptian forces operating in coordination with Israel have hit hard against the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist network based in the Sinai. Several Islamic terror networks took advantage of the chaos resulting from the “Arab Spring” to set up camp in the Sinai and neighboring Gaza Strip.

General al-Sisi and most Egyptians see this terrorist network as a threat against national interests, in particular the tourism upon which the Egyptian economy so heavily relies.

While the Egyptian media has kept mum regarding its actions against Hamas, residents of Israeli towns on the border with Egypt tell us that Israel is actively supporting Egyptian troop movements against both Hamas and Sinai-based terrorists.

Hamas – Getty-AFP

Particularly hard hit has been the underground smuggling industry that for years flourished below the Gaza-Sinai border. Egyptian troops have destroyed a large number of smuggling tunnels in recent months, effectively ending the flow of weapons and other goods into the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

One of the likely end results will be that the Palestinians of Gaza will suffer even more, and Israel is likely to be blamed for that, despite the fact that Hamas and its collusion with the Muslim Brotherhood is directly responsible for incurring the wrath of the Egyptian military regime.

View original Israel Today publication at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24173/Default.aspx?hp=article_title