Egypt scrambles to stop missiles launched at Israel from Sinai
Reports of rockets fired at Israel by militants in the Sinai Peninsula are an embarrassment for the Egyptian government as they struggle to contain insurgent groups in the region.
On July 8, Israel started a new offensive — Operation Protective Edge — against the Gaza Strip in response to the constant raids on southern Israel, according to the statement of the spokesman for the Israeli Army, Peter Lerner.
With the war raging for days on end and with the escalation of its intensity, news has been circulating that missiles were launched from the Egyptian territories, namely the Sinai Peninsula, toward the Israeli border cities. Those missiles did not constitute a response from the Gaza Strip alone against Israel; it seemed that other parties in Egypt were responding too.
Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah Harhour, the governor of North Sinai, denied that something of the sort had happened and said that no missiles were launched from Egypt on southern Israel.
Harhour, who spoke briefly to Al-Monitor, confirmed that the eastern border of Egypt is protected and that Egypt will not allow any party in the conflict to violate its sovereignty or use its territories in any offensive.
