Egypt Strips 100s of Citizenship, Including Hamas Leader

The al-Sisi government is cracking down hard on its northern neighbors, the Gazan Palestinian Arabs.

The Egyptian government has revoked the citizenship of 800 people. A commission created to review citizenships and pardons by the Egyptian cabinet revoked the citizenship statuses, an Egyptian newspaper is reporting.

Included in that 800 are Palestinian Arabs, one of whom is the senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar.

One basis for the citizenship revocation is illegally obtained citizenship in the first place, another is membership in terrorist groups that have committed assaults against Egypt.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry has also begun revoking licenses for weapons which had been issued for Muslim Brotherhood figures under the previous president, Mohamed Morsi.

Several Palestinian Arabs are currently being tried in absentia for the crime of participating in attacks on Egyptian police facilities which enable Morsi to escape from prison during the 2011 uprising, after which Morsi was elected president.