Abu Marzouk: Sabotaging Sinai’s security and siege on Gaza are in Israel’s interest

Israel is the only side interested in sabotaging the security of Sinai as well as the continuation of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, a senior Hamas official has stressed.

In exclusive remarks to Quds Press Deputy Head of Hamas’s Political Bureau Moussa Abu Marzouk said: “The Zionist entity is the only side who is interested in the continuation of the blockade on the Gaza Strip and keeping Sinai depopulated, without development, and deprived from investments despite its attractiveness.”

He called on the Egyptians and the Palestinians not to give Israelis a chance to achieve this. “In the absence of security in the Sinai, the Gaza Strip is suffering because of the closure of the crossing, and what we ask for is not to give them [Israel] a chance to achieve their goals, whether harming the Sinai or the closure of the crossing,” he said.

He said that the fact that terrorist operations have coincided with the opening of the Rafah border crossing is dubious, especially because this has been the case for the past two years. “Could this be a coincidence? The question is: Who benefits from the continuation of the crossing’s closure? Who benefits from the suffering of the [Gaza] Strip’s people? Who benefits from the continued absence of security in Sinai and the consequent absence of investments and development in Sinai?”

The Rafah border crossing separates Palestine and Egypt, and is located in the town of Rafah along the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.