Egypt is considering expanding the jurisdiction of military courts and displacing thousands of residents to enlarge a military buffer zone near the border with the Gaza Strip following an attack on security forces in the area.And who does Egypt blame for this terrorism? Palestinians!
Two attacks on Friday in the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip killed at least 33 security personnel in some of the worst anti-state violence since former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood last year.
Sisi, who became president in June, said the military would respond by taking "many measures" in the border area where a buffer zone is likely to be expanded in order to pursue militants and destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons and fighters.
Security sources told Reuters the army was considering relocating residents to clear a larger buffer zone.
Friday’s attacks on army posts in the northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula were carried out by Palestinian militants, a senior Interior Ministry official told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday, at the same time that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi told Egyptians in a televised address that “foreign forces” were responsible for the attacks.Hmmm...Defending against Gaza terrorists? Closing off the border? Demolishing homes that protect smuggling tunnels?
Maj. Gen. Sameeh Beshadi, who was formerly in charge of security in the North Sinai governorate where the attacks took place, said there was “no doubt that Palestinian elements had taken part in the attacks,” which killed at least 30 soldiers, according to security and medical officials.
He said the assailants had entered Sinai via the tunnels linking the region with the Palestinian territories, and that the assailants had prepared the booby-trapped vehicle which Egyptian authorities say was used to carry out one of the attacks while inside Egyptian territory.
According to Egyptian officials, of the two attacks Friday, the first involved a booby-trapped vehicle being rammed into an army checkpoint close to the border town of El-Arish, while a second attack involved the use of mortars and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) against another checkpoint to the south.
Beshadi said the use of RPGs and mortars in the second attack proved the assailants were not local to the area. “The terrorists we are dealing with in North Sinai do not possess the necessary knowhow to fire mortar rounds, nor do they have the ability to use RPGs, in the way that we saw in the complex attack that occurred on Friday,” he maintained.
This comes as President Sisi warned on Saturday that “foreign hands” were behind the attacks, though he did not specify who exactly was responsible.
Beshadi said it could take as little as little as 15 minutes to cross via vehicle from the Gaza Strip to the area where the attacks were carried out, some 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the west of the border.
“All the big terrorist operations which have taken place in North Sinai in the last few years involved well-trained Palestinian elements, including the attack on the military helicopter at the beginning of this year,” Beshadi said, referring to an attack which took place mid-January in the Kharouba area in North Sinai and which killed five soldiers.
The only thing missing is the hundreds of NGOs that issue thousands of scathing reports when Israel does the same thing!
(h/t Yoel)