Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said on Saturday that the fall of Mohamed Morsi is a blow to Hamas, the islamist terror movement that rules Gaza. He noted, however, that Israel’s security arms had good relations with Morsi.

“We had good relations on the security and intelligence levels with Morsi, as well,” Aharonovich said. “It was important to us to maintain ties with the former government.

“The coup is an internal Egyptian matter,” he added. “We are following it: we are concerned and we are looking at them. We are listening to the reports from Egypt and the situation there is very sensitive. We see that there are casualties there all of the time.”

“It is really important to us that this country should remain a friend of the state of Israel,” the minister said. “This is a country with which it is very important to maintain ties.”

“The security branches – the IDF and intelligence elements – were on good terms with them – with Morsi, too, and these things need to be said honestly.” He added. “The developments in Operation Pillar of Defense also contributed to this. The fact that President Morsi did not maintain formal relations with Israel and had no direct talks with us – this was something we missed. I expect and hope that whoever is elected there, Israel will have direct communication with him.”