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Itongadol/AJN.- Israel has permitted Egypt to send two additional infantry battalions as well as a fleet of attack helicopters into the Sinai Peninsula as part of its campaign to root out Islamist jihadists, Army Radio reported on Thursday.
Since the Sinai is to be a largely demilitarized zone as per the terms of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, Cairo must procure Jerusalem\’s consent to any deployment of additional forces in the area.
Egypt has been reeling from a series of attacks by Islamic extremists against soldiers and police as part of their anti-government insurgency.
Egypt formally asked Israel to approve the deployment after the deadly car bomb targeting security personnel in the northern Sinai last week. The attack was viewed as one of Egypt’s gravest national tragedies.
Egyptian forces are now concentrating their efforts along the Sinai-Gaza frontier, where families are emptying their homes – lugging mattresses and furniture onto waiting vans as soldiers look on from armored cars.
In the village of Ibshar and eight more along the frontier, 680 houses – homes to 1,165 families – are being razed to seal off smugglers\’ tunnels and try to crush a militant insurgency in northern Sinai that has intensified since the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood 16 months ago.
The operation\’s resulting no-mans-land – a security buffer 13.5 km-long and 500 meters deep – will provide greater visibility and, Egypt hopes, deter any future passage of arms from Gaza to militants who killed 33 security personnel on Oct. 24 in some of the deadliest attacks since the army took power.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. But they bear the hallmarks of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which is targeting police and soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, a strategically important area that borders Israel, Gaza and the Suez Canal, the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Inspired by Islamic State, the al-Qaida offshoot now facing US-led strikes in Iraq and Syria, Ansar recently began a campaign of beheadings against locals who have informed on its fighters.
Against that backdrop of fear, Egypt may only face heightened resistance if it proves successful in closing the tunnels. Many locals depend on income from illicit tunnel trade in all kinds of goods and without it could be tempted into the arms of insurgents, said one source from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.
"What the army is doing shows their weakness," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because members of his group are being sought by security forces. "But I say thanks to the army as this decision will push more people our way."
The stakes are high for Egypt, whose military rulers aim to prove their credibility by restoring stability and growth. They have sponsored Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire talks and unveiled a canal expansion plan that hinges on restoring investor trust.
That confidence could prove tough to win, if as some security sources say, last month\’s attacks mark a shift in militant tactics away from near-daily smaller roadside bombs towards larger car bombings that inflict mass casualties.
So far Egypt\’s army has stepped up air strikes on suspected militants but has shied away from a ground offensive. Security patrols have increased as forces clear the border strip, but spotting militants has proven tricky – they melt easily into a local community mistrustful of the state.
"The army\’s biggest problem is that the militants are part of the civilian population. You need to pick them out with a pin," said one security source.
Some residents say the new measures amount to collective punishment that will do little to rebuild loyalty to a central government that has long neglected them.
"I\’m not leaving my house even if they kill me. I was born and raised in this house," said one woman sitting outside her home in Ibshar. "If they want the terrorists, they know where they are. There\’s no need to force us from our homes."