GAZA - The Gaza-ruling Islamic Hamas movement said Saturday it has had no contacts with Egypt since it refused to sign an Egyptian proposal for inter-Palestinian reconciliation in last October. "There are no contacts at all with Cairo," Salah al-Bardaweel, a Hamas official, told Xinhua, responding to reports that a Hamas delegation would pay a low-profile visit to Egypt for talks with officials. The independent newspaper Al-Masry al-youm reported on Saturday that the Hamas delegation would hold talks with the Egyptians over "issues of mutual concerns." These issues include the stalled indirect talks between Hamas and Israel to free Palestinian and Arab prisoners in exchange for the release of a captive Israeli soldier, and recent tension between Hamas and Egypt after the Islamic movement accused Egyptian forces of throwing poisonous gas in a tunnel beneath Gaza 's southern border with Egypt where four Palestinians had died, according to the newspaper. Al-Bardaweel said these reports "were inaccurate and untrue." Hamas, which routed rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas and seized Gaza in 2007, rejected to reconcile with Fatah under an Egyptian proposal, demanding some modifications in the offer. However, Cairo refuses to amend the plan until Hamas signs it.
