Egypt Adds ‘al-Gamaa al-Islamiya’ to Terror List

Top official of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya Tarek al-Zumar (Asharq A-Awsat)
Top official of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya Tarek al-Zumar (Asharq A-Awsat)
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Egypt Adds ‘al-Gamaa al-Islamiya’ to Terror List

Top official of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya Tarek al-Zumar (Asharq A-Awsat)
Top official of al-Gamaa al-Islamiya Tarek al-Zumar (Asharq A-Awsat)

The Cairo Criminal Court has added Islamist group al-Gamaa al-Islamiya as well as 164 of its leaders and members to a list of terrorist entities, in a decision that could expedite the dissolution of “Building and Development” party, the group’s political arm.

Gamaa is the most prominent ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities classify as "terrorist" since the overthrow of former president Mohamed Morsi.

The court ruling also includes putting Tarek al-Zumar, Mohammed Shawki al-Islambouli, both fugitives in Turkey, Assem Abdelmajid, who is in Qatar, and others on the terrorist list for five years.

The Official gazette “Waqae Masriyya” reported in its Sunday issue that that the decision was announced by the Criminal Court, based on the investigations and reports of State Security Prosecutor's Office. It identified al-Gamaa al-Islamiya as a “terrorist entity” established contrary to the provisions of the law with the goal of forcibly changing the regime.

The newspaper also indicated that the group advocates disruption of the provisions of the Constitution and laws, the paralysis of state institutions and public authorities, and violates personal and public freedoms of citizens.

Article 237-1 of the Constitution stipulates that the state is obliged to counter terrorism in all its forms and its sources of funding as a threat to the homeland and citizens, while guaranteeing rights and freedoms.

The court based its decision on the findings of the Supreme State Security Prosecutor's Office in September, as well as that of the national security sector.

Investigations revealed that following the events of January 25, 2011, many leaders and members of Gamaa abandoned their previous initiative to end violence, and declared their adherence to the organization’s ideology calling for the atonement of the ruler for not applying the Sharia law, and establishing an Islamic state.

The gazette noted that some members of the group are linked to al-Qaeda while some of their top members joined the so-called National Coalition to Support Legitimacy of Muslim Brotherhood in Turkey, most notably Assem Abdelmajid, Tarek al-Zumar, Mohammed al-Islambouli, Assem Diab and Khaled al-Sharif.

The Coalition was established in 2013 after Morsi was ousted.

The court said that the defendants held organizational meetings and agreed to revive al-Gamaa al-Islamiya by providing financial support to members to purchase weapons and ammunition. 

They also aim to use social media to spread false and fake news wanting to create strife and rift between the people and the government.

According to the Law on organizing terrorist entities and terrorists, the court’s decision will include other measures against the defendants, such as freezing their assets, listing them on a travel ban, revoking passports and preventing the issuance of new passports.

In a few months, the Political Affairs Department of the Supreme Administrative Court will appeal the parliamentary Party Affairs Committee's request to dissolve the “Building and Development” party and liquidate its funds on charges of financing and supporting terrorism and extremism.

The Party usually emphasizes its adherence to "peaceful opposition and comprehensive community reconciliation."

Political parties affiliated with religious groups, including al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, were founded after the January 25 revolution.



US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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US Tracking Nearly 500 Incidents of Civilian Harm During Israel’s Gaza War

 People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)
People pray by the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip October 30, 2024. (Reuters)

US State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of civilian harm during Israel's military operations in Gaza involving US-furnished weapons, but have not taken further action on any of them, three sources, including a US official familiar with the matter, said this week.

The incidents - some of which might have violated international humanitarian law, according to the sources - have been recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Gaza war started. They are being collected by the State Department's Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of US-origin weapons.

State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and non-public sources, including media reporting, civil society groups and foreign government contacts.

The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to be applied to all countries that receive US arms, has three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment, and coordinated department action, according to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.

None of the Gaza cases had yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the matter. Options, the former official said, could range from working with Israel's government to help mitigate harm, to suspending existing arms export licenses or withholding future approvals.

The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.

The Biden administration has said it is reasonable to assess that Israel has breached international law in the conflict, but assessing individual incidents was "very difficult work," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

"We are conducting those investigations, and we are conducting them thoroughly, and we are conducting them aggressively, but we want to get to the right answer, and it's important that we not jump to a pre-ordained result, and that we not skip any of the work," Miller said, adding that Washington consistently raises concerns over civilian harm with Israel.

The administration of President Joe Biden has long said it is yet to definitively assess an incident in which Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza.

John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration "has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations."

"The US government hasn't done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers," he said.

The civilian harm process does not only look at potential violations of international law but at any incident where civilians are killed or injured and where US arms are implicated, and looks at whether this could have been avoided or reduced, said one US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A review of an incident can lead to a recommendation that a unit needs more training or different equipment, as well as more severe consequences, the official said.

Israel's military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave's health authorities.

The latest episode of bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.