Hamas has since repeatedly turned down calls to let the PA return as stipulated in the agreements concluded with Israel and the European Union.

However, beggars can’t be choosers, and Hamas hopes that such a move would placate the Egyptian Army and induce it to open the crossing more often. It would bring sorely needed relief to the population of Gaza, now openly grumbling against the organization. But there is no question of letting the European inspectors come back, since Hamas considers the agreements null and void.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood set up in 1987, had placed great hopes in the then newly elected Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the candidate of the Muslim Brothers. It confidently expected the Rafah crossing would henceforth let people and goods flow in both directions; it also counted on the support of the new regime against Israel and against its rival, the Palestinian Authority.

It did not happen. Morsi, busy tightening his control on all public institutions while trying to tackle the disastrous economic and social situation of the country, let the army deal with the growing threat of terror in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Egyptian Army, now engaged in an all-out war against jihadist terrorism in Sinai, knows Hamas only too well and has scores to settle.