At sundown on August 5th 2012, Global Jihad terrorists operating in the Sinai killed sixteen Egyptian soldiers and wounded seven, took over two armoured personnel carriers (APCs), and attempted to infiltrate into Israel. The terrorists exchanged fire with Egyptian soldiers near Rafah before capturing an Egyptian military post and attempting to enter Israel using the APCs they had commandeered. The IDF and the air force halted their advance, and ‘no Israelis were reported injured in the attack’. (Times of Israel)

New details have emerged about the attack, as Jodi Rudoren reports in today’s New York Times: ‘Egypt’s military said in a statement that 35 masked gunmen, packed into three Land Cruisers, stormed an Egyptian checkpoint and killed the soldiers as they were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast.’ The BBC reports that the gunmen ‘dressed as Bedouin nomads’, opened fire on the ‘border post near the Rafah crossing, with guns and rocket-propelled grenades’.

Lt. Col Avital Leibovich, of the IDF, said one of the terrorists then drove a truck taken from the military outpost and ‘packed with a half ton of explosives, about a mile to the Israeli border fence, which he blew up along with himself and the vehicle’ in an attempt to create an opening to infiltrate Israel. ‘The armored car, also stolen, then entered Israel, where it was stopped by three Israeli airstrikes that killed six or seven men’. As Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak made clear in his comments when he visited the scene of the attack on Monday 6th August, Israel’s forces prevented a major terrorist attack on its soil: ‘With all the explosive material that was brought in the small truck that exploded at the start, as well as the suicide bomber belts on the six to eight terrorists who were in the armored vehicle… there is no doubt that if they had entered a town here or an army bases by surprise, they could have caused very serious damage.’

Egyptian officials have blamed militants in Sinai and said they were aided by Palestinians in Gaza. In its statement, the military called the attackers “enemies of the state” and said that “those who stand behind them must be confronted by force.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the IDF and Israel Security Agency for the intelligence-gathering and swift actions which foiled ‘a very major terrorist attack’. He also expressed ‘regret over the killing of the Egyptian soldiers’, reiterating the explicit ‘common interest’ that Israel and Egypt share ‘in maintaining a quiet border.’ (Government Press Office)

The cooperation of Israel and Egypt in maintaining the 1979 Peace Treaty and countering terrorism in the Sinai was reaffirmed in a statement delivered by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Yigal Palmor:

'Israel wishes to convey its condolences to Egypt and to the Egyptian people on the killing of security forces servicemen by terrorists. This barbaric attack has caused the death of Egyptians, and was meant to slay Israelis as well. Moreover, it aimed at shattering the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.

Peace between the two countries has been, and still is, an interest common to both peoples; Israel will continue to act in a spirit of cooperation with Egypt in order to preserve this vital interest and ensure security and stability in the region.'