The northern Sinai Peninsula south of the border with Israel is engulfed in an all-out war.
Egyptian F-16 warplanes attacked Islamic State (ISIS) and other jihadists’ positions for several hours Wednesday afternoon and killed more than 90 jihadists following massive ISIS attacks.
Most of the 70 Egyptian casualties were soldiers and policemen, and the death toll is not final.
Egypt retaliated immediately and fiercely, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said:
Terrorism is knocking on our borders. ISIS is not only across from the Golan Heights, it is also in Egypt, across from Rafah…And we are together with Egypt and other states in the Middle East and the world in the struggle against extreme Islamic terror.
Together or not, Israel immediately closed crossings to Egypt and Gaza.
ISIS declared yesterday that it will wipe out both Hamas and Israel.
Egypt still is counting the bodies of those killed today while its jets bombed jihadi posts near Rafah and at Sheikh Zuweid, where ISIS had set siege to a police station earlier in the day.
The ISIS attacks may have finally woken up the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to the fact that ISIS is no less a threat to Cairo than it is to Damascus and Baghdad.
ISIS assassinated Egypt’s state prosecutor two days ago.
The terrorist machine gave the world a hint Wednesday morning just how powerful and well-armed it is.
Terrorists used anti-tank rockets, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault on 15 different army and police positions in a well-planned and calculated war on the regime that faces Al-Sisi with a bigger threat than even the Muslim Brotherhood, whose party he replaced in a de facto military coup last year.
ISIS also has anti-aircraft guns, some of which were destroyed n the Egyptian retaliation this afternoon.
Egypt has been in turmoil ever since the Arab Spring protests against Hosni Mubarak, who ousted was hastened by President Barack Obama, who in turn praised the Muslim Brotherhood and its leader Mohammed Morsi following his election.
A year later, Obama found himself once again encouraging the ouster of the president and praising Al-Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi , whose regime has been no less ruthless than Mubarak’s and Morsi’s.
With the alternative being anarchy, the United States and other powers have backed al-Sisi, but the Sinai has been virtually a province of anarchy for four years.
Hamas has been a serious threat to Egyptian control in the Sinai, next to the border with Israel, and the Gaza terrorist party and army have executed dozens of attacks against Egyptian forces.
ISIS making Hamas look like small potatoes.