August 19th 2011

The South Under Terror Attack

Operations Room Yesterday, a series of coordinated terror attacks on Israeli civilian vehicles, took place at approximately 12:00 PM along the Israeli Egyptian Border, some 10 Kilometers North of the Southern city of Eilat, when gunfire was opened on an Israeli bus. 14 people were injured in the one instance and were evacuated to nearby hospitals. Almost simultaneously, an additional bus and two civilian vehicles were fired on by another terrorist group. The combined attacks left over 40 people injured and 8 dead. READ MORE
The scene of the attack - Watch the Video

About 20 rockets fired at Israel from Gaza in the past day

Most rockets fell in open areas in the Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva and Kiryat Gat regions. Two rockets hit populated areas in Ashdod and seven people were wounded, including one critically. READ MORE

The Sinai Peninsula Terror Training Ground

A review of the massive smuggling of military arsenal into the Sinai. READ MORE 10 Palestinians attempted to infiltrate Israel from Sinai last year - The terrorists who committed the attacks near Eilat on Thursday (August 18) originated from the Gaza Strip and infiltrated into Israel from the Sinai Peninsula. READ MORE

DF soldier killed as a result of terror attack - Staff I Sgt. Moshe Naftaly was killed while trying to come to the assistance of a civilian under attack. READ MORE Enter the IDF Spokesperson Blog for more information
IDF Spokesperson's Unit Public Affairs Branch

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August 19th 2011

The South Under Terror Attack

The Sinai Peninsula Terror Training Ground

Israels southern border with Egypt has been considered until the August 18th deadly events, as a quiet frontier, hardly covered by the media. On August 18th this changed and this border became the new focus on the war against terrorism as well as a focal point to guarantee the security of the State of Israel and its citizens. Since the fall of the Mubarak Regime in Egypt and the emergence of a leadership that questions Egypts foreign policy towards Israel, a vacuum has evolved in the Sinai Peninsula, allowing for terror activity in that region. In short, the Sinai Peninsula is becoming a Terror Incubator. Though the many Israeli tourists visiting Sinai describe the region as The Egyptian Garden of Eden, there exists a constant undercurrent or terror activity which primarily involves the smuggling into the region of military hardware directed by extreme Islamic groups. Led by Al Qaeda, these seek to fill the vacuum created by the partial withdrawal of policing forces that were deployed there. The military contraband finds its way to Sinai traveling through Arab countries, directed by Iran with its vested interest in applying its influence on Palestinian Terror groups. The principal smuggling routes originate in Iran, through Sudan, onto Egypt and into the Sinai. There have been recent reports in the Arab media of the uncovering of military hardware caches particularly in the northern Sinai coastal area of El Arish. The Palestinian News agency MAAN reported on August 29th 2010 on the uncovering of a massive cache of military arsenal by the Egyptian security forces. The report related to 110 anti aircraft missiles and hundreds of kilograms of explosives. Another report related to nine caches uncovered in the north and central regions of the Sinai, as well as in the cities of Rafah and El Arish, which included a variety of arsenal such as machine guns, ammunition, missiles, anti-tank mines and 100KG of TNT. Parallel to this activity within the Peninsula, the smuggling of hardware into the Gaza Strip continues in full force. The Israel Security Services report in May 2011, that since the beginning of 2010, the Sinai-Gaza smuggling axis has seen hundreds of conventional rockets (mostly covering ranges of 20 and 40KM), about one thousand Rocket Propelled Grenades, dozens of Anti Tank weapons, tons of explosives as well as tons of raw materials for the manufacture of explosives. The report clarifies that the weapons traffic in Sinai is the principal source of income of Bedouin Tribes residing in the Sinai. These Bedouin take possession of the contraband on the Sudan Egypt frontier and move it through Egypt, into the Sinai and finally to the Gaza border. So as to guarantee Israels security, the IDF operates in collaboration with the Egyptian Armed Forces to curtail further terror events. Furthermore, IDF military engineers constantly work to uncover and destroy the tunnels which form an integral part of the smuggling operation.