Over the last weekend, Egypt's Emergency State Security Court blacklisted Hamas' armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, declaring it a terrorist organization. The court's ruling was made a day after the terrorist onslaught in the Sinai Peninsula that claimed the lives of 27 Egyptian soldiers and left dozens wounded. There is no clear-cut evidence of collaboration between the Islamic State (IS), which assumed responsibility for the attacks, and cells of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in the recent terrorist assault. But as far as Egypt is concerned, there is no need, or any reason, to ascertain such coordination between the two groups to declare Hamas' armed wing an organization that supports and carries out terrorist attacks.
Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have been active in Sinai for years, smuggling weapons and conspiring with each and every jihadist faction around, mostly under cover, but openly at times, during the era of former President Hosni Mubarak, while his regime occasionally turned a blind eye.