Sinai is a very valuable part of Egypt, and it has a unique place in the hearts of all Egyptians and Muslims because of its history with Prophets and history with wars. Egyptian young men died to get Sinai back after Israel’s occupation in 1973; however, after the January 25, revolution, Sinai witnessed a number of terrorist attacks, which caused worries to spread all over Egypt and Israel. The Egyptian army spokesman said that Sinai is under control and the army is working to end the militants or Jihadi groups working in Sinai, while Israel insists that Sinai is full of Jihadi groups that work to attack the boarders of Israel, like the attack took place in August 2012.
In Ramdan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, militants attacked Egyptian soldiers on the boarders by sunset, which resulted in killing 15 Egyptian security personnel, besides tens were injured. The attackers used a pickup truck equipped with explosives to breach the boarders, while they stole an army vehicle and drove it about a mile inside Israel before a missile killed the attackers and exploded the vehicle.
Eight militants were killed in this operation and Israel gave the bodies of the dead attackers to Egypt. During the examination of the attackers’ bodies it was found that their shoes were “made in Palestine”, which means that the attackers may have came to Egypt from Gazza. Also there are possibilities that the attackers were trained by Hammas in Gazza; however, no one knows the reason that may encourage Hammas to participate in such attack in that time, although attacking Israel boarders can be a good reason for Hammas to work in Sinai.
On the other side, this attack represented a test for Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and his relationship with Israel. Israeli military intelligence had information about the attack days before it happened, and reports say that Israel shared such information with Egypt, but it doubted that the Egyptian authorities would take an action to avert the attack. Ehud Barack, Israel’s Minister of Defense said after the attack “I hope this will be a wake up call for Egypt regarding the necessity to be sharp and efficient on their side”
About two months ago the Egyptian army started an operation called it “Nesr” or “Eagle” to clean Sinai from militants and Jihadists, besides destroying the tunnels between Gazza and Sinai, which is heavily used to transfer weapons, drugs and criminals between both sides.
The Egyptian army said in its statements that it killed hundreds of Jihadists and destroyed more than 120 tunnels, and the operation is still running. Yet, reports continue to come with expectations that Jihadists are preparing for a huge operation to revenge for the dead attackers in August and this is why Israel insists that Sinai is not yet under control.
The coming days should see more actions taken by the Egyptian army and more cautious from Israel side. Both sides should have learned from the lesson and Mohamed Morsi now knows that the people in Egypt won’t let it go, if more soldiers were killed by militants or Jihadists.
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