Hamas leader and co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar has denied his organisation’s involvement in a massacre which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers last September. Speaking exclusively to Arabstoday, al-Zahar claimed: “Hamas would never kill its Egyptian brothers or mess around with security conditions in Egypt.” The prominent Hamas official shunned media reports surrounding the incident as “lies and slander,” criticising Egyptian media for “reporting stories without checking them.” Al-Zahar also reflected with Arabstoday on the November conflict in Gaza, claiming Hamas had proven it could beat Israel’s air force. “One of Israel’s planes was shot down in the last war,” he said. “We have the power to beat the Israeli air force with anti-aircraft missiles.” “With our simple equipment, we were able to confront Israel’s security dogma and destroy its theory of deterrence.” “Victoriesand defeats in wars are not measured by material losses or the scale of human devastation, but rather by the degree of influence and pressure between the two sides,” al-Zahar claimed. The Hamas co-founder and thinker also launched an attack on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, claiming the West Bank leader had not shown the “desire” to push through an increasingly dormant Palestinian reconciliation agreement. “We’ve made efforts to reach some kind of steadfast reconciliation, not based on political power,” al-Zahar said. “But Fatah have tried to tackle the issues of elections and the formation of a new government, but cancelled all the other terms of the agreement.” Al-Zahar warned that US President Barack Obama’s Wednesday visit to the region would be “ominous,” stressing it would only increase inter-factional divisions between Hamas and Fatah.