Senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood have accused Mohamed Dahlan, the former leader of the Palestinian Fatah party, of orchestrating the 5 August attacks near the Rafah border that left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead.

Brotherhood leader Ali Abdel Fatah told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Dahlan has a dark history of violence, and that he had attempted to stage a coup against former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and current President Mahmoud Abbas. Fatah expressed hope that security bodies would find the real culprits.

Freedom and Justice Party MP Hassan al-Birins claimed on Twitter that Dahlan was dismissed from Fatah for collusion with Israel in recruiting Palestinians as mercenaries against the Hamas government and he smuggled some of these recruits into Israel. When Hamas took control of Gaza, some of these recruits remained in Egypt.

Israel used eight of these mercenaries in Sinai to carry out the attack, he claimed, alleging that the culprits jumped from an armored vehicle the Israeli forces destroyed.

Former Jama'a al-Islamiya member Osama Roshdy agreed with the accusations, saying that Mohamed Dahlan is trying to put impediments between Egypt and the Palestinians.

Roshdy also accused Dahlan of serving the Zionist agenda, adding that he believes Dahlan’s participation in such a crime would be possible.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm