Egypt branded Islamist gunmen who killed 16 police near the Israeli border as “infidels” and yesterday promised to launch a crackdown following the massacre that has strained Cairo’s ties with both Israel and Palestinians.
There is a red line and passing it is not acceptable- military
An Egyptian official said jihadist militants crossed into Egypt from the Gaza Strip before attacking the border station on Sunday. They then stole two vehicles and headed to nearby Israel, where they were eventually killed by Israeli fire.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday that up to eight assailants died in the attack, adding that he hoped the incident would serve as a “wake-up call” to Egypt, accused by Israel of having lost control of the desert Sinai peninsula.
The bloodshed represented an early diplomatic test for Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist who took office at the end of June after staunch US ally Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year in a popular uprising.
Mr Mursi visited the border area yesterday, accompanied by the head of Egypt’s military, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. The army sent in reinforcements and stepped up checkpoints.
Mr Mubarak cooperated closely with Israel on security and suppressed Islamist movements such as Mr Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood which rejects violence to achieve its goals but whose leaders often voiced hostility towards the Jewish state.
Egypt’s military, which still holds many levers of power, called the attackers “infidels” and said it had been patient until now in the face of the instability in Sinai.
“But there is a red line and passing it is not acceptable. Egyptians will not wait for long to see a reaction to this event,” it said in a statement on its Facebook page.
A largely demilitarised Sinai is the keystone of the historic 1979 peace deal between the two countries. But for the past year there has been growing lawlessness in the vast desert expanse, as Bedouin bandits, jihadists and Palestinian militants from next-door Gaza fill the vacuum, tearing at already frayed relations between Egypt and Israel.
Mr Mursi has promised to honour Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel and has done little to suggest a major shift in ties.
He has also reached out to Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt and Israel, and Sunday’s killings put an instant strain on their relations.
Egypt closed its border crossing into Gaza “indefinitely”, cutting off the sole exit route for most Palestinians at the height of the Muslim-fast month of Ramadan.
Hamas, which condemned the killings of the Egyptians, also sealed a warren of smuggling tunnels after Cairo said the gunmen had used these underground links to reach Egypt.