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ISIS in Sinai claims responsibility for Eilat Rocket Attack
The Islamic State Sinai Province has officially claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket attack on Israel.
The ISIS-affiliated group issued a statement on Thursday confirming it was behind the attack aimed at the Israeli port city of Eilat.
It said: “A military squad fired a number of Grad rockets at communities of Jewish usurpers in the town of Eilat.. in order to teach the Jews and the crusaders a proxy war will not avail them of anything. The future will be more calamitous with Allah’s permission.”
Four rockets were fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. Three were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system and a fourth landed in an open area and caused no damage.
The city’s main medical centre confirmed that four residents were taken to hospital and treated for shock. Rocket fragments were discovered in a number of locations, and one large piece was found in a hotel swimming pool.
ISIS in the Sinai has already stated its commitment to attacking Israel. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which renamed itself Sinai Province after affiliating to ISIS in November 2014, fired three Grad rockets into southern Israel in July 2015. In 2014, two rockets landed in Eilat during Operation Protective Edge causing light injuries and damage to a car.
The group is also believed to have been responsible for a complex terror attack in 2011, that involved four terrorist groups attacking an Israeli civilian bus and several army vehicles near the Egyptian border. Six civilians, two IDF personnel and several Egyptian soldiers were killed.
Since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in 2013, the Islamic State affiliated group has violently opposed the government of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, persistently attacking Egyptian military forces in Sinai and inflicting serious casualties. Some reports suggest that as many as 5,000 Egyptian soldiers have been killed or injured by ISIS in Sinai. The Egyptian Government has recently sought a rapprochement with Hamas in Gaza in order to isolate ISIS and limit cooperation between Hamas and ISIS. It is possible that Wednesday’s rocket attack was part of a strategy to disrupt and complicate the Egyptian-Hamas détente.