Hamas beefs up security on Gaza border with Egypt

GAZA CITY

The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry has been beefing up security arrangements along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt for several days now.

Troops deployed along the border with Egypt have set up barriers made of sacks of sand around their positions.

These measures have been taken because the Interior Ministry wants to impose tighter control over the border, according to a source at the Palestinian Homeland Security Agency, a department of the Interior Ministry.

"We had to beef up security on the border after the Egyptian army opened fire on the Gaza Strip more than once," the source told The Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity.

He added that Egyptian fire had targeted checkpoints on the Palestinian side of the border.

In February, Gaza's Interior Ministry accused the Egyptian army of opening fire on the Palestinian side of the border.

However, an Egyptian army source denied this charge.

"The Egyptian army has never done this before," the source told AA at the time. "If we do it today, we will declare it."

A Palestinian source, meanwhile, said the latest measures taken by Gaza's Interior Ministry on the border with Egypt had nothing to do with growing tension between Egypt and Palestinian faction Hamas.

The source said Homeland Security personnel deployed on the border with Egypt had only taken positions 100 meters from the border so they would not be exposed to potential Egyptian gunfire.

He added that the sand barriers had been set up for this purpose.

"The measures aim first and foremost at protecting personnel deployed on the border," the source told AA.

He revealed that Gaza's Interior Ministry had a plan to increase the number of checkpoints on Gaza's shared border with Egypt.

Relations deteriorated remarkably between Egypt and Hamas in 2013 soon after the ouster of Islamist Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi by the army.

Hamas is an ideological offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement from which Morsi hails.

The Egyptian army also accuses the Palestinian faction of standing behind repeated attacks against Egyptian army personnel in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, which shares borders with both Gaza and Israel.

Hamas has consistently denied the allegations.