Israel increasingly concerned as tensions flare in Sina

Concern is mounting among Israeli defense officials over growing tensions along Israel’s border with Egypt. At least three people were killed and 17 wounded early Monday morning in north Sinai when terrorists used rocket-propelled grenades to attack a bus carrying employees of a cement factory to work, Egyptian security and medical sources said.

According to sources, the bus was fired on as it passed near the city of el-Arish, amidst a sharp rise in Islamist militant attacks in the lawless Sinai region since President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by Egypt’s military on July 3.

Eyewitnesses said the attackers shouted „Allahu akbar!” („God is great”) after the bus was hit.

Hany Ismail, a passenger on the bus at the time of the attack, also saw a military vehicle drive by the scene of the incident without doing anything to help.

„We were driving along when suddenly we felt an explosion,” Ismail said. „By the time we understood what was happening and got off the bus, we saw a military vehicle driving past us but it did nothing to help. We started looking for each other and found around two or three dead bodies inside the bus. We then realized that we were hit by a rocket and some of us were injured, some dead, and 10 minutes later the ambulance arrived.”

Some pointed at the Muslim Brotherhood for blame.

„They said a few days ago that they would carry out suicide missions, and I personally blame the Muslim Brotherhood for what happened,” Ismael’s brother, Ayman, said. „The Egyptian army is working hard in intensifying the arrests of these militants, and I want to thank them.”

Hard-line Islamist groups based in north Sinai have intensified attacks on police and soldiers over the past two years, exploiting a security and political vacuum in the wake autocratic President Hosni Mubarak’s 2011 ouster.

Violence in the region has spiked again since Morsi’s overthrow, with militants attacking security checkpoints and other targets almost daily and killing at least 13 people and wounding dozens.

Israeli officials say the fighting is an internal Egyptian matter, but they are keeping a close eye on the unrest.

Security officials said that their advice to residents near the border on Sunday to stay indoors was a precaution, not an order, and would remain in effect while fighting continued. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with press.

Uncertain future for Sinai

By exacerbating anger and apparently confirming low expectations of democracy among Islamist militants who viewed Morsi and the Brotherhood as too moderate, the presidents ouster has brought new violence to Sinai. If the fiery rhetoric of hard-line groups is any indication, more violence may await.

In addition to Egyptian security posts near the Suez Canal and the Gaza frontier, targets this month have included a Christian priest, shot dead in the Mediterranean port of el-Arish; a gas pipeline to Jordan; and the Israeli Red Sea resort-city of Eilat, where remains of a rocket were found.

Egypt’s armed forces are on high alert, though military sources downplay talk of a major offensive. Such an operation might require Israeli approval — as stipulated by the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. Some experts say the Egyptian army is less than ideally prepared for a counter-insurgency drive.

Despite banner headlines in a state-run newspaper this weekend declaring a new assault on Sinai militants in the coming days, army sources are soft-pedaling the possibility of a major operation in the near term. Resources are already stretched.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief journalists on the issue, said troops in Sinai were on heightened alert.

If the army were to want to be more assertive, it might need to re-equip. The Abrams tanks and F-16 fighter jets it buys with $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid are not ideal for fighting small groups of international jihadi militants and their local Bedouin allies in remote, rugged terrain.

„We’ve long been urging them to change their procurement policies to give them the flexibility they need to tackle counter terror in Sinai,” Robert Springborg, who studies the Egyptian military at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, said.