Hossam el-Hamalawy
From the Jerusalem Post:
Egypt has imposed severe restrictions on Hamas officials crossing into the country, sources close to Hamas told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. Israeli defense officials said the decision to impose the restrictions was part of a general Egyptian “crackdown” on Hamas, which also included increased efforts to prevent weapons smuggling from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.
Many Hamas officials who traveled abroad through the Rafah border crossing over the past few months have complained that they were delayed for several hours on the Egyptian side of the border. The restrictions have created a crisis between Egypt and Hamas, whose leaders accused Cairo of humiliating senior Hamas leaders.
Dozens of leftist activists demonstrated yesterday afternoon, in front of the old HQ of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, in downtown Cairo, demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador to Egypt, halting normalization with Tel Aviv and severing diplomatic ties, amid public anger over Israel’s killing of Egyptian POWs.