Egypt hunt Sinai militants

Sami Abu Zuhri Ramallah - Sona Adeek Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior spokesman for the Palestinian political party Hamas, has revealed a joint cooperation between the "sacked" Gaza government and Egyptian security forces to find the culprits of last Sunday's attack on an Egyptian border post in the Sinai peninsula that killed 16 Egyptian troops. Zuhri told Arabstoday that the collaborative hunt aimed to gathering information that could reveal those involved in the attack,  while charging that the only beneficiary from the attack was the Israeli occupation. About the rumors of the Sinai attackers possible being from the Gaza Strip, Zuhri explained that communications with the Egyptian government had not produced any clues to indicate the involvement of  Palestinians, and that Egypt had not asked the "sacked" government for anything in that regard "The Israeli occupation aims to create a state of instability in the region and invent excuses to maintain the blockade imposed on Gaza...the target is the Palestinian people as well as the Egyptian people, and there is an understanding from the Egyptian officials on this,” he added. More than 30 militants attacked the border guard post under the cover of mortar fire and commandeered a military vehicle into Israel. The attack highlighted the government's tenuous grip on the Sinai Peninsula, from where Islamist militants have launched several rocket attacks on Israel and a deadly cross border raid last year. It also presents a challenge to Egypt's new Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood has good relations with the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip. Morsi has vowed to lead the fight in clearing the volatile Sinai peninsula after the attacks, while the miltiary has already started conducting air raids and arrest campaigns in the area. After president Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011, militants stepped up attacks in Sinai, prompting the military, then in charge of the country, to send reinforcements to the peninsula. Egypt also closed its Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip, the territory's only access to the outside world that is not controlled by Israel. It was partially reopened later in the week however, letting Palestinians in Egypt return to Gaza. Zuhri however said that the Sinai incidents would not affect Egyptian–Hamas relations.  Ahmed Bahr, the first deputy of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stressed that the Egyptian security was an integral element of Palestine's own security.  In a statement to Arabstoday Bahr also condemned the criminal attack on the Egyptian borders, saying "the attempt to create problems between Egypt, Gaza and Hamas will fail".