Hamas rejects rocket attack charges

Hamas has rejected allegations by Israeli and Egyptian leaders accusing the resistance movement of being behind rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan earlier this week.

Egyptian security sources said on Wednesday that seven Soviet-style Grad rockets fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula have hit Israel’s resort town of Elit and Jordan’s port city of Aqaba, killing one civilian and injuring three others in the latter.

The officials blamed the deadly attacks on Hamas fighters operating from Egypt.

But Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri dismissed the accusations as “unprofessional, contradictory and unreliable,” saying they were “fabricated” by Israel and Egypt, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The senior Hamas member added that the Egyptian charges were “politically motivated” and aimed at inciting against the Gaza Strip “to justify the continued siege and aggression.”

Abu Zuhri assured that the Islamic movement was not involved in such incidents as it insists on limiting conflict with the occupying regime of Israel in the Palestinian arena.

“We in turn call on the involved parties not to be drawn into this Israeli media fabrication,” Abu Zuhri urged.

The rockets in question hit a narrow area of the Red Coast where the Israeli and Jordanian ports are located side by side — more than 300 kilometers (190 miles) from Hamas’ stronghold in the Gaza Strip.

The rocket fire was the second such attack this year, after a similar volley in April that Israel also said was fired from Egypt.