WarSclerotic

Defense minister warns Sinai violence may spill over |.

While touring southern border, Moshe Ya’alon says Iron Dome anti-missile battery moved to protect Eilat ‘just in case’

By Asher Zeiger July 23, 2013, 7:11 pm

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, center, touring the border with Egypt Tuesday. (photo credit: Ariel Hermoni/ Defense Ministry)

Violence between Egyptian troops and Islamists in the Sinai Peninsula could spill over into Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Tuesday while touring the border.

Yaalon said Israel had recently moved an Iron Dome anti-missile battery to Eilat to protect the Red Sea resort town from rockets that Sinai Islamists might fire.

“For now, the clashes are between Islamic extremists and the Egyptian army, police and security forces,” said Ya’alon, adding that the battery had been moved “just in case anyone dares fire toward the city.”

Since the Egyptian military removed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi on July 3, supporters of the ousted leader and radical Islamists have increased violent attacks, assassination attempts and kidnappings throughout Egypt, and particularly in the Sinai Peninsula. In the past two weeks, at dozens of Egyptian security officers and terrorists have been killed in clashes.

On Monday, a civilian and four security officers were killed in an attack on the northern Sinai cities of el-Arish and Rafah, on the border with Gaza.

Terrorists fired a rocket toward Eilat following the coup in early July, though it landed in an open area with no injuries or damage reported.

The southernmost city has been subject to a number of missile attacks in recent years.

In April, Eilat was hit by two Grad rockets, apparently fired from the Sinai. One of the rockets fell in an open area, but the second landed in a residential area and caused light damage.

The airport in the city was closed briefly in the immediate aftermath of that attack.

Ya’alon acknowledged that the Egyptian army’s recent operations against extremist forces had been more effective than when Morsi was in power, but “the process is longer than we would have liked.”

As of last week, Egypt has 11 infantry battalions deployed in the Sinai, as well as a tank battalion and assault helicopters — all of which required and received Israel’s formal approval, as per the 1979 Camp David peace accords.

Ya’alon said that the security fence that separates Israel from Egypt should be completed within the next three months. The fence was originally planned just as a barrier to keep out migrants, but was upgraded to include motion sensors, cameras and heightened security after multiple cross-border incidents that occurred in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution, which resulted in a drastic decline in law and order in the Sinai.

Ya’alon also hailed the success of the security fence in reducing the number of migrants from the Sinai “to just a handful in recent months compared to thousands a year and a half ago.”

The defense minister also welcomed Monday’s vote by the EU to brand Hezbollah a terror organization, saying that the decision was “better late than never.”

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