the close relationship between the head of Egyptian intelligence and Meshal does not mean that the relationship between Hamas and the Egyptian army − as opposed to the ties the Islamist organization has with the Egyptian president − is proceeding calmly.
For example, even as Meshal and Haniyeh held talks with the top officers in Egyptian intelligence last weekend, the Egyptian army continued to demolish the tunnels that link the Gaza Strip and Sinai. After destroying some 250 last month, the army flooded another 76 tunnels with sewage, after locating them by means of satellite information, probably in cooperation with the United States. The dozens of trucks that arrived in the area of the tunnels to unload their wares had to return to El-Arish. They left behind not only disappointed Gazan and Egyptian merchants, but also a wave of price rises in Gaza and economic damage to the Hamas government, which collects fees for the transfer of goods through the tunnels.
The Egyptian defense minister, Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, made it clear this week that the army would continue its extensive activity against terrorism in Sinai, and added: The Egyptian army has no need for the aid of Hamas or any other body. The Egyptian army is capable of coping with terrorism on its own. That comment came after Hamas leaders again offered their help in thwarting the Sinai-based arms smuggling and terrorist attacks.
A deep rift arose between the Egyptian army and Hamas after the attack last August in which 23 Egyptian officers were killed inside Sinai, on the Rafah border. The army accuses Hamas activists of being behind the incident, and denials by Meshal and Haniyeh were of no avail. Sissi turned down requests for a meeting with the Hamas leader or other senior officers. Not even mediation efforts by President Mohammed Morsi were able to budge Sissi − whose relations with the president are far from warm. Sissi agreed only to have the head of intelligence meet with Meshal and Haniyeh, because, as he explained, This involves matters of policy and politics related to the Palestinian reconciliation, matters under the responsibility of Egyptian intelligence.
Moreover, senior Egyptian army sources recently told the newspaper Al Tahrir that the army conducts relations with regular armies of states and not with secret organizations. Secret organizations is a mild expression compared to some of the not-for-quotation epithets used by Egyptian sources in regard to Hamas.
The refusal by army officials to meet with leaders of Hamas, and the ongoing demolition of the tunnels, are intended not only to improve security in the area or to settle accounts with Hamas. For Sissi, these actions, which enjoy public support, are also meant to show President Morsi that the army will determine where national threats exist, and will also decide on how to meet them − whether it involves smugglers in Sinai or demonstrators in Port Said. In this way, the defense minister, himself a Morsi appointment, is demarcating the line of separation between the powers of the political leadership and those of the military leadership. However, even that separation could become blurred with the army taking action that affects developments in Gaza, including the local economy and Hamas ability to manage the Strip. There are no official data about the economic damage caused by the destruction of the tunnels, through which 30 percent of the goods imported into Gaza pass.
