Palestinian killed by Egypt in Sinai amid crackdown
Man reported shot by border guards emerging from tunnel, two others arrested as military clamps down on northern Sinai
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Egyptian border guards killed a Palestinian man Saturday who entered the Sinai peninsula by a tunnel beneath the Gaza border, the Palestinian Ma’an news agency reported.
At least two others were arrested, Egyptian officials were quoted saying.
The incident came as the Egyptian military launched a campaign against Sinai-based terror groups. Egyptian planes struck targets in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweyid, and the military closed off the towns of Rafah, Sheikh Zuweyid and El Arish, Israel Radio reported.
The attacks came a day after an al-Qaeda-inspired militant group in Egypt beheaded a man in the restive Sinai Peninsula for allegedly conspiring with Israel.
Militants from the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis group dumped the beheaded body on the road in the town of Sheikh Zuweyid, and continue to hold several other men for the same reason, according to the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, whose name means Champions of Jerusalem in Arabic, posted an online video in August showing the beheading of four men in Sinai. The men in the video said they helped Israel target the group’s members with drone strikes in exchange for money.
The group claimed most of the major militant attacks that have hit Egypt since the 2013 ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
The Times of Israel Community.