Ten jihadists belong to Tawhid wal-Jihad, have been killed in Sinai peninsula in the past two days during an operation launched against Islamist militants, the official MENA news agency reported on Thursday.
“The security operation, carried out by the armed forces in northern Sinai in the past 48 hours, led to the deaths of 10 jihadists,” a military source was quoted as saying, AFP news reported.
Last night, unidentified assailants killed three policemen in an attack in the North Sinai town of El Arish in Egypt.
Eyewitnesses said assailants opened fire on a military ckeck point. The Egyptian army has tightened security measures and helicopters are reportedly flying low in the region.
The incident took place hours after three people were killed and three others were injured in an attack by unknown gunmen in Sinai’s Sheikh Zuweid neighborhood late on Wednesday.
On Tuesday night, two Egyptian army officers and three soldiers were injured after militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a military base in the Sinai peninsula, military officials said.
Three soldiers, a captain and a non-commissioned officer were injured in the attack, which took place at a military base in the Safa neighborhood of Rafah.
Commanders chose to have the five injured military personnel treated by army doctors at the base for fear of attacks if they evacuated the men to a hospital in nearby Rafah, MENA reported.
Meanwhile, Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Wednesday that two militants fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) on a security facility and two army assemblies in Rafah on the borders with Gaza and fled the scene.
According to the report, no one has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the attack, which so far has not resulted in any casualties
Furthermore, for the second time in a week, an Egyptian Apache gunship flying over the Gaza Strip” for security concerns and for the protection of the Egyptian sovereignty”, Mustafa Hijazi, the political advisor of Egypt’s interim President Adli Mansour, said on Wednesday.
“The Egyptian Army runs military operations in Sinai to fight the terrorists”, Hijazi added.
Another security revealed that Egypt is ready to use its air force in the Sinai to crush Islamist gunmen active on the Israeli border. Adding, the army plans to attack Al Halal Mount in the center of the peninsula, including using tanks to flush out militants who are entrenched.
It is worth mentioning that the new wave of attacks in Sinai concentrated since the People’s revolution on January 2011, which overthrew President Hosni Mubarak and has recently escalated once again after Egypt’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrow President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
In Gaza, Egyptian security forces have continued to demolish more tunnels along the borders between Gaza and Egypt.
On his part, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya called on Egyptian authorities for finding an alternative to the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt which are being demolished by Egyptian army.
“The Palestinians must not subjugate to a suffocating siege due to the closure of the terminals and to the destruction of the tunnels,” Haneyya said. “We have to seek solutions.”
Haneyya stressed that Hamas is keen to maintain security in Egypt and stressed that Hamas did not and will not interfere in the Egyptian affairs, as some Egyptian media try to claim .
“The Palestinian stance is clear; we do not interfere in Arabs’ internal affairs, and we have our own cause,” Haneyya stated.
In the meantime, residents of the Gaza Strip started to feel lack of gasoline, diesel and fuel. This is evident, whereas the electricity cuts off every day for more than 16 hours, which increases the suffering of the people in Gaza especially in this hot weather and the fasting of Ramadan.