Israeli security sources reported that the Israeli investigations into an attack that took place on the border with Egypt last month, leading to the death of one Israeli soldier and three gunmen, was carried out by operatives of the Al-Qaida network. Israel initially suspected that the attackers were Bedouins living in Sinai, but ongoing investigations revealed, according to Israel, that “the cell is connected to Al-Qaida” and that “most of the attacks that were carried out in the area recently, are connected to the terrorist network”.
Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Israeli and Egyptian security sources confirmed that a cell of armed extremists, connect to Al-Qaida, is behind several attacks that were carried out last year and this year, and that this cell was based in Sinai. These attacks were carried out on the Egyptian border with Israel.
Egypt apprehended two persons who were involved in the most recent attack; the two are from the Delta area in Egypt and are not Bedouins from Sinai.
They were never involved with extremist groups, but they recently joined a Salafist extremist group and left their homes one month before carrying out their attack.
Their families said that they “went to support the resistance in Syria”, the Maan News Agency reported.
The new information sheds more light to certain aspects of the recent attacks, especially since Egypt’s security forces and intelligence services believed that Bedouin groups in Sinai were behind the attacks against Israel.
But the information does not make it easier for the Egyptian security forces to apprehend the attackers as they could be anywhere in Egypt, not only in Sinai, or they could even be abroad, in addition to the fact that they had no history or prior connection with any fundamentalist group.
