Palestinians have expressed fear that Sunday night´s terror attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border would hinder efforts to lift Egyptian restrictions imposed on residents of the Gaza Strip.

Egypt´s decision to shut the Rafah border crossing in the aftermath of the attack drew sharp criticism from Palestinians.

Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, described the decision as "collective punishment." He vehemently denied that some of the terrorists had emerged from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and other Palestinian groups, meanwhile, dismissed claims about the involvement of terrorists from the Gaza Strip in the attack, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Egyptian soldiers.

Hamas deployed hundreds of policemen along the border with Egypt to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into the Gaza Strip from Sinai, announced Gamal al-Jarrah, a top Hamas security commander.

He said that the Hamas government has also issued orders to close down all the underground tunnels along the border and to do their utmost to help reveal the identity of the terrorists.

The Hamas government and some Palestinian groups hinted at Israeli involvement in the attack with the aim of driving a wedge between the Palestinians and Egypt.

Hamas security officials insisted that none of the terrorists who carried out the Sinai attack had come from the Gaza Strip. However, the officials did not say who they believed was behind the terror assault.

A spokesman for the Hamas government claimed the attack was an Israeli "attempt to tamper with Egyptian security and drive a wedge between the Egyptians and the residents of the Gaza Strip."

The spokesman said that allegations about the involvement of Palestinians in the terror attack were mainly aimed at inciting the Egyptian people against the residents of the Gaza Strip and the Hamas government.

"This is a despicable crime that only serves the interests of the Zionist enemy," the Hamas spokesman said. "We believe that Israeli agents were behind the attack."

Another Hamas official pointed out that the attack came only days after a "successful" meeting in Cairo between Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and President Mohamed Morsy.

At the meeting, the two men agreed on a series of measures that are designed to ease travel restrictions imposed on Palestinians.

The two men also agreed that the Rafah border crossing would be open for 12 hours daily to facilitate the travel of Palestinians.

"This attack is aimed at destroying the achievements gained by Prime Minister Haniyeh´s visit to Cairo last week," the Hamas official said. "We hope that our brothers in Egypt would not fall into the trap."

Shortly after the attack, Haniyeh held an emergency meeting of his cabinet and top security commanders to discuss its repercussions and ways of avoiding a confrontation with the Egyptians.

Following the meeting, Haniyeh expressed readiness to assist the Egyptians in investigating the attack.

Haniyeh also phoned the director of Egypt´s General Intelligence Force, Murad Mawafi, and offered his government´s help in capturing the culprits and those behind them.

"We are prepared to help in exposing the identity of the perpetrators," said Hamas legislator Mushir al-Masri.

Denying the involvement of Palestinians, al-Masri blamed unidentified "suspicious and malicious" parties of being behind the attack.

The Islamic Jihad organization in the Gaza Strip also denied involvement, saying that attack serves only "Israeli occupation."

Another group, Al-Jama´ah Al-Islamiya [The Palestinian Group], claimed that Israeli "intelligence forces" were behind the attack.

Tarek al-Zumar, a spokesman for the group, claimed that Israel was behind all recent terror attacks against the Egyptians because it wants to make changes along its border with Egypt." (© 1995-2011, The Jerusalem Post 08/07/12)