Gaza City, May 14: Gaza’s Hamas rulers, whose relations with Cairo are growing increasingly tense, on Tuesday accused Egypt of torturing Palestinian prisoners.
“They are subjected to horrible methods of torture, electrocuted, hung by their limbs for long periods, beaten,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist movement.
“The situation of the detainees in the Egyptian prisons is catastrophic,” he told. “Arrests and torture are increasing.”
He said 30 members of Palestinians factions, including 11 from Hamas, are held in Egyptian prisons, where they have served from one to six years.
Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s main opposition movement, and its relations with Egypt have become increasingly tense in recent weeks.
Cairo is seeking to mediate reconciliation between Hamas and its arch-rival Fatah faction headed by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Hamas seized power in 2007, ousting Fatah forces in a week of bloody fighting.
-Agencies