By Xinhua
Gaza : Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday denied reports that a Hamas member arrested by Egypt, had planned to assassinate a prominent member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party on Egyptian territories.
Egypt arrested Ayman Nufal, a Gaza Strip resident and a member of Hamas’ military wing, without bringing any charge against him, said Ayman Taha, a spokesman for the Islamic movement in Gaza.
“The report is groundless and aims at making tension in the ties between Hamas and Egypt,” Taha said, adding Hamas and its armed wing “have no intention to carry out assassinations among Fatah leaders neither in Gaza Strip nor in Egypt.”
According to Taha, Egypt “arrested 115 fighters from al-Qassam Brigades and gradually released them except Nufal.” They were detained after Hamas opened breaches in the Gaza-Egypt border and allowed thousands of Palestinians to cross freely into Sinai in January.
A rifle and explosives were found with Nufal when he was arrested, reported Al-Hayyat newspaper Tuesday, a London-based Arab daily quoted an Egyptian source on condition of anonymity as saying.
The report said Nufal was planning to assassinate a senior Fatah member who fled from Gaza to Egypt when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force last June, but it failed to reveal the name of the target person or the place where Nufal was arrested.
Nufal was being interrogated by the Egyptian state security department, said the report.
Hamas has got the promises from Egypt that Nufal, the last Hamas prisoner held in Egypt, would be released, according to Taha.
However, the Egyptian source ruled out the immediate release of Nufal since the issue “is related to Egypt’s national security.”