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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Rockets being smuggled from Gaza back into Egypt for firing into Israel

Walla reports:
Egyptian security forces seized today (Tuesday) in northern Sinai a launcher with three Grad rockets that were ready to be launched into Israel. State security officials told the site Al Masry al Youm that according to intelligence officials the plan was for radical Islamists to shoot the rockets to Israel from the launcher located south of Rafah. According to the source, the rockets have been smuggled through tunnels from Gaza to Sinai, and Egyptian forces now surround the area.
A very similar story was reported on Sunday by Masrawy:
Army forces were able on Sunday to destroy a large store of missiles in central Sinai using airstrikes. Sources confirmed to Masrawy that the information received by the security services, confirmed the smuggling of large quantities of Grad and Katyusha missiles through the tunnels, stored in an abandoned house on the outskirts of the village of Wadi Al-Amr in central Sinai.

Egyptian helicopters bombed the missile storage and a car transport loaded with rockets, killing two militants.
It is not hard to imagine the appeal to jihadists of firing from the Sinai to Israel. They would like to try to drag Egypt into a situation it doesn't want to be in, without worrying about Israeli return fire.

(h/t @Jschanzer via Josh Korn)