Haneyya slams Egyptian army for killing fisherman, flooding border

Deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau Ismail Haneyya has strongly denounced the Egyptian army for killing a 17-year-old fisherman in Gaza waters and persisting in flooding the Palestinian Rafah border areas with seawater.

This came during his visit on Saturday evening to Rafah to offer his condolences to the family of the slain boy Firas Miqdad.

Haneyya condemned the killing of the boy as a “disregard for the Palestinian blood” and held the Egyptian authorities fully responsible for his death.

He also described the incident as a “violation of all values and historical ties binding the Palestinian and Egyptian peoples,” affirming that Egyptian soldiers opened fire directly at fishermen in the Palestinian territorial waters.

“After we conducted an investigation, it was proven that fisherman Miqdad and the others did not cross the Palestinian waters,” the Hamas official asserted.

“Let’s assume that under such stifling blockade, those fishermen went some meters into the Egyptian waters, the Egyptian army, then, has the means to see clearly that the fishermen were only holding fishing gears,” he added.

“Such behavior is not acceptable against the Palestinian people. We are today involved in an intifada (uprising) against the Israeli enemy and need the Arabs to support us and protect our backs,” Haneyya underlined.

He also called on the Egyptian authorities to stop flooding the Palestinian border with seawater and open the Rafah crossing permanently before passengers and goods.

“Egypt can protect its security and close the tunnels, but it has to open the crossing in return.”