According to media reports, the political delegation accepted Cairo’s demands that Hamas stop the smuggling of weapons and infiltration of fighters along the border between Gaza and Sinai and prevent extremist jihad groups from using the Gaza Strip as a base for preparing attacks against Egyptian military forces in the Sinai Peninsula. The announcement published by Hamas stressed that it was scrupulously observing “non-intervention in the internal affairs” of Egypt, a hint at a commitment to refrain from taking sides in the struggle between the el-Sisi regime and the Muslim Brotherhood –mother organization of Hamas. The talks between the sides also dealt with a list of wanted people which Egypt gave to Hamas; the arrangement of an agreed-upon mechanism for opening the Rafah border crossing; expansion of trade relations between Egypt and the Gaza Strip; the ceasing of media attacks; and Egyptian mediation between Hamas and Israel and between Hamas and Fatah.

Since July 2013—when the Egyptian army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi, who had been elected president from the Muslim Brotherhood party—relations between Hamas and the Egyptian regime have been tense, and high-level meetings have not taken place between the two sides. Hamas has had difficulty in maintaining its relations with Egypt, due to its identity as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the ideological and operative connections between members of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Salafi-jihad groups in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt regarded Hamas as the unofficial “military arm” of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and accused it of aiding terrorism in Egypt, including involvement in the attempted assassination of Egyptian Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat in July 2015.

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