Amid massive expulsion of Gazans, Hamas 'ministry' and witnesses say Egypt has now shot at its positions - but did Hamas contradict itself?

Not only has Egypt been able to expel Gazans from the border with Sinai and demolish their homes and mosques to create a counter-terror buffer zone as the world silently watches, but on Tuesday morning Egyptian troops reportedly opened fire on Hamas "military posts" in Gaza near the border with impugnity.

Reports of the shootings were relayed by witnesses in Gaza to the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency, although there were no reports of wounded.

Iyad al-Buzm, a spokesperson for the Hamas terrorist government's "Ministry of Interior," accused the Egyptians of "firing directly and deliberately at two Palestinian military posts on the southern Gaza Strip borders."

He said the Egyptian soldiers fired without warning, and that the Hamas side had not committed any breach of conditions that would have warranted the potentially lethal response.

"This is a dangerous indicator which necessitates an immediate investigation to call to account those involved in it," al-Buzm said.

However, the Egyptian army had a different version of events. Earlier on Tuesday it reported that a bomb exploded in a military vehicle near the Gaza border, marking the first such incident, and possibly initiating a military response against the apparent terrorist attack.

Casting further doubt on the claims by the Hamas ministry and Gaza residents was Abu Ubayda al-Jarrah, commander of Hamas's Gaza national security forces, who said the incident was not intentional.

The Egyptian troops accidentally opened fire "near our forces," said al-Jarrah, saying the burst of gunfire was part of the ongoing Egyptian operations in Rafah and did not specifically target Hamas forces.

If the shooting on Tuesday did actually target Hamas watch towers, it would provide further testimony of the dual standard imposed by the world when judging Israel's counter-terror operations in Gaza as compared to those actions taken by Egypt.

Egypt has demolished thousands of homes in expelling all Gazans from the Sinai border to create a wide one kilometer (over half a mile) buffer zone.

The decision to do so was made following two deadly attacks last October in Sinai's El-Arish, which killed dozens of Egyptian soldiers and were claimed by Egypt’s deadliest terrorist group, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis.

Egyptian sources have revealed that Hamas terrorists had provided the weapons for the lethal attacks in El-Arish through one of its smuggling tunnels under the border to Sinai, thus necessitating the buffer zone.

As a follow-up, Egypt on Saturday banned Hamas's "military wing," the Al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.

Hamas responded by saying it no longer views Egypt as a mediator in talks with Israel, and on Monday hundreds of supporters of the Hamas terrorist organization marched in protest.