Hamas’ Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Friday that he is convinced the new Egyptian president, Mohammed Morsi, will protect Gaza against Israeli aggression.

Haniyeh added that he is convinced that Morsi will open the borders between Gaza and Egypt and will remove the blockade.

Channel 10 News quoted Haniyeh, who spoke during Friday prayers in a mosque in Gaza, as saying he is certain that Egypt will not support aggressive actions in Gaza.

“We’re confident that Egypt’s new leadership under Morsi will never support to any aggression or a war in Gaza,” Haniyeh said.

“We are confident that Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi will not take part in the siege being imposed on Gaza,” he added.

Channel 10 reported that Haniyeh is expected to visit Cairo within the next few weeks, whereh he will meet with Morsi and ask him to reopen the border between Egypt and Gaza, which has been closed for the past five years.

Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. The rise of the movement to power in Egypt has led to speculations and concerns that it will show greater support for Hamas, which seized Gaza from the Palestinian Authority under its rival faction, Fatah, in a bloody 2007 putsch.

Muhammad Badi, the supreme leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, recently called for jihad on Israel.

Badi “confirmed the necessity for every Muslim to strive to save al-Quds [Jerusalem] from the hands of the rapists [Israelis] and to cleanse Palestine from the clutches of the occupation, deeming this an individual duty for all Muslims.”

He also “called on all Muslims to wage jihad with their money and their selves to free al-Quds”—the same exact language one finds in al-Qaeda’s tracts.

Some have portrayed Badi as the true power behind Egypt’s presidency, with Morsi acting as his puppet.