Rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan highlight how Hamas could use Sinai
Rocket attacks against Israeli and Jordanian resort towns on the Red Sea are believed to have come from Egypt's Sinai, raising fresh concerns about militant activity – possibly including Hamas – there.
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Secret underground tunnels have facilitated the weapons smuggling. With the Israel-Gaza border sealed off, Israeli officials have been concerned that Hamas could carry out attacks on Israel by exiting Gaza west through the tunnels into Sinai, traveling south parallel to the Israel-Sinai border, and then east back into Israel through the porous border. (See map.)
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That plan of attack has been complicated by Egypt's construction in recent months of a subterranean barrier that blocks some of the tunnel traffic. But with Egypt in flux amid concerns about President Hosni Mubarak's health, and a looming succession battle, it's unclear how much control Egypt can exert over the Bedouin and their partners.
"The farther from Cairo, the weaker the central authority is. They are having great difficulties with the Bedouin,'' says Ronen Bergman, a security commentator for the Israeli daily newspaper Yediot Ahronot. "If Hamas is able to deepen its cooperation with the Bedouin, and create bases in Sinai for recruitment, we're talking about a new ballgame."
Egypt roiled by Red Sea bombings for past decade
Over the past decade, Egypt has been roiled by a handful of bombings targeting Red Sea resort cities stretching from Sharm el-Sheikh at the southern tip of Sinai to Taba.
The bombings were assumed to be the work of Islamist militant groups, affiliated with international terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda, which target foreign and Israeli tourists in Egypt.
More recently, two Katyusha rockets were fired in the direction of Eilat on April 22; one touched down in Aqaba and the other in the sea. There were no reported injuries. Then, as now, Jordan insisted that the rockets came from outside, but didn't say any thing beyond that.
Jordan's information minister declined to comment to the Monitor today on the results of the previous investigation.
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