Egypt government appeals court ruling labeling Hamas as ‘terrorist’

The government of Egypt has filed legal action with a Cairo court appealing the court’s former ruling, which labeled the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, as a terrorist group.

Egypt’s State Lawsuits Authority, the government’s legal arm, has appealed a ruling by Cairo’s Court for Urgent Matters labeling Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, a ‘terrorist organization,” a judicial source said on Wednesday.

According to reports, the court has set March 28 as the to date to start hearing the case.

In February, the same court blacklisted Hamas after calling its military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a “terrorist” organization.

The Cairo court had claimed in a lawsuit in January that the resistance group was involved in recent attacks against Egypt’s security forces.

Hamas reaction

Following the Egyptian court’s announcement on February 28, the Palestinian resistance group released a statement describing the court ruling as “shocking and dangerous.”

“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.

The movement added that the decision “will have no influence on the Hamas movement, which enjoys the respect of all the nation and the leaders of the nation.”

Egypt-Hamas relations

After the ouster of Egypt’s former president, Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013, relations between the Cairo government and Hamas, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, have strained.

Egypt has stepped up the destruction of cross-border tunnels into Gaza since then. More than 1,600 tunnels have been demolished since the military-backed government came to power in Cairo last year.

The underground routes are the only lifeline for the people of Gaza living under the Israeli blockade. Palestinians use the tunnels to bring essential supplies such as foodstuff, cooking gas, medicines, petrol and livestock into the impoverished Palestinian territory.

In early January, Egyptian army sources said the military had begun operations to increase the size of the existing 500-meter buffer zone along the border with Gaza to a full kilometer.

The Cairo authorities decided to create the buffer zone after the deadly attacks in the restive Sinai Peninsula that targeted more than 30 Egyptian soldiers in October 2014.