No Rockets Will Be Launched From Sinai at Israel

No Rockets Will Be Launched From Sinai at Israel

By | 2010-12-27T15:01:00-04:00 December 27th, 2010|News|0 Comments

An Egyptian security official issued a denial Sunday that the Sinai Peninsula has become the latest operations center for the Hamas terrorist organization.

The denial came in an interview published by the London-based Arabic-language daily A-Sharq al-Awsat. The source denied last week’s report by the Hebrew-language Ma’ariv claiming that Hamas is using the area for production and storage of weapons.

"Egypt’s strict security measures at the borders with the Gaza Strip prevent storage of fighting equipment in Sinai," he maintained.

The source detailed the measures used to prevent terrorists from building military facilities in the Sinai for use in their war against Israel. Security checkpoints exist every 100 meters along the Egyptian border city of Rafiah, he said, in addition to guards deployed along the border fence. Dozens of other officers are also stationed in the area, he added, and they work to prevent weapons smuggling in the area.

"Egypt will never accept its territories being used for launching missiles at Israel," the source stated.

In August, Egyptian security forces uncovered 190 anti-tank missiles and 10 anti-tank bombs, prepared and ready to be smuggled from the Sinai into Gaza. The security forces had raided storehouses in northern Sinai as part of a wide scale police operation to ferret out drugs and weapons.

IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) officials have warned in the past year that global jihad terrorist groups have established terror cells throughout the Sinai.

Earlier in the year, the twin cities of Aqaba and Eilat, located in Jordan and Israel, were hit with a barrage of rocket fire launched by Hamas terrorists from the Sinai.

Five rockets struck Eilat in the April attack, including two that exploded in open areas and three which landed in the sea. Another rocket exploded in Aqaba next to a local hotel, killing one person and wounding three others.