ISIL affiliate in Sinai claims rocket attack on Israel

Sinai Province group says it fired three rockets into southern Israel in rare attack from Egyptian soil.

Sinai fighting
Fighters unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombings, on Egyptian army checkpoints on Wednesday [AP]

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s affiliate in Egypt has claimed responsibility for a rocket attack from the Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel on Friday.

“Three Grad rockets were fired at Jewish positions in occupied Palestine,” the “Sinai Province” group said in a statement on Twitter.

An Israeli military spokesman said earlier that two rockets fired from Egypt’s violence-plagued Sinai exploded inside Israeli territory on Friday without causing casualties or material damage.

Egypt is reeling from a string of deadly attacks by ISIL on the security forces in Sinai. ISIL and other groups say they have killed scores of troops there in the recent days, while the military says it has killed more than 100 fighters.

On Wednesday, Egypt’s military deployed F-16 warplanes to bombard ISIL fighters who battled troops in a North Sinai town after launching a surprise dawn attack on army checkpoints.

Dozens were killed in what was ISIL’s boldest attack yet in the Sinai, with fighters taking over rooftops and firing rockets at troops.

Incidents along the Israel-Egypt border are rare.

At the end of last year two Israeli soldiers were wounded by gunshots and an anti-tank missile fired at their car from Sinai.

The most serious incident was in August 2011, when gunmen infiltrated southern Israel and staged a series of ambushes that killed eight Israelis.

Israel has a 240km border with Sinai, which is mainly populated by Bedouins who maintain difficult relations with the central government.

 
 
Source: News Agencies