COGAT Exposes Hamas Collusion With Islamic State in Sinai

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has sent a message to Hamas putting the terrorist organization notice that its collusion with Islamic State in Sinai is known to Israeli intelligence, The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.

“Hamas leaders: Your efforts to hide your cooperation with ISIS smuggling from Sinai through lies and manipulation in attempts to broadcast ‘business as usual’ with Egypt are not hidden from our view,” COGAT head Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai wrote in Arabic in an online posting Thursday.

Mordechai accused Hamas of harboring Bilal Brahma, a Salafist-linked Hamas operative working with the Islamic State in Sinai, despite the fact that Hamas itself had reported him killed in recent fighting. Brahma is regarded as a major figure in smuggling in the region.

“Hamas is brazenly lying to its neighbors and to Egypt, which works to destroy tunnel infrastructures; this comes one week before representatives of the terrorist organization make an expedition to Egypt,” Mordechai wrote, referring to ongoing smuggling via the tunnels.