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The Egyptian National Commission for the Protection of the Environment in North Sinai has accused Israel of causing pollution levels to rise in Sinai's coastline, Egypt Independent reported this week.
The commission's head, Abdallah Hijawy, claimed that since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip, Jerusalem has removed major water pumps that were used to stop massive amounts of sewage from reaching Sinai, according to the report. “In front of the international community, Israel is responsible for the service sector in the occupied lands," Hijawy was quoted as saying, "even the color of the water has changed and the smell is terrible." According to the report, an increased level of pathogens in the Mediterranean, caused by industrial waste water excreted from Israel and the Gaza Strip, has raised human susceptibility to cancer and other diseases. Hijawy said he plans to pursue a course of action through an international court, after being told by an Arish court that they had no jurisdiction in international cases such as these. This is not the first time Israel has been accused by Egypt of interfering with the Sinai coast. More on:http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egypt-Israel-responsible-for-sewage-on-Sinai-coast-308859
Deux touristes, un Israélien et un Norvégienne, enlevés vendredi dans la péninsule égyptienne du Sinaï, ont été libérés, a annoncé mardi l'agence officielle égyptienne Mena. Les deux touristes ont été libérés grâce aux "efforts" de tribus bédouines du Nord-Sinaï, a indiqué l'agence, en citant les services de sécurité de cette région. Les deux personnes, qui se trouvent en bonne santé, ont été remises en liberté aux premières heures de la matinée par des chefs de tribus, poursuit l'agence sans donner plus de détails sur les conditions de cette libération. Six hommes armés à bord d'une camionnette avaient intercepté la voiture des deux touristes qui circulaient entre la station balnéaire de Taba et celle de Dahab, et les avaient forcés sous la menace des armes à monter avec eux, avaient indiqué vendredi les services de sécurité. Un responsable de la police avait indiqué que la femme était une Norvégienne de 31 ans, après que la police eut initialement affirmé qu'il s'agissait d'une Belge. Plus: http://fr.news.yahoo.com/egypte-lib%C3%A9ration-deux-touristes-enlev%C3%A9s-sina%C3%AF-063230682.html
The Egyptian army and police arrested 25 Hamas and al-Qaeda terrorists who were trying to make their way from north to south Sinai, security officials told Egyptian daily Al Watan. According to the report, the terrorists were in possession of some 50 weapons, including RPG launchers, advanced field radios and photos of sensitive facilities in the Sinai Peninsula. From: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4360819,00.html
Les services de sécurité du Sud-Sinaï ont intensifié leurs efforts pour retrouver 2 touristes disparus– une Norvégienne et un Israélien arabe- entre Taba et Dahab. D’après les enquêtes et les 1ères analyses de la voiture du couple, un groupe de malfrats aurait forcé la voiture à s’arrêter et enlevé les 2 touristes, afin de réclamer la libération d’un accusé arrêté au Nord-Sinaï en possession de grandes quantité de drogues. كثفت قوات الأمن بجنوب سيناء من جهودها اليوم الجمعة لفك لغز اختفاء سائحة نرويجية وسائح آخر من عرب إسرائيل قادمان من طابا في طريقهم إلي مدينة دهب .
North Sinai Governorate has witnessed unprecedented security measures aiming at maintaining security and stability. In this context, the Armed Forces and the police have pushed in military vehicles, amours and a large number of personnel in central Arish, on the international road between Al Arish- Al Qantara and Sheikh Zuwayed and Rafah regions. These measures follow aborting an attempt to smuggle textiles used in manufacturing Armed Forces uniform through tunnels. Commenting on this smuggling operation, Taher Al Nunu, the Spokesman for Hamas movement said the seized textiles were planned to be used for manufacturing clothes for Gaza children and not making any damage to the Egyptian national security. Security troops have been intensively deployed in Arish streets and squares. Security checking points were placed in the main points of the city. More on:http://allafrica.com/stories/201303191256.html?aa_source=slideout
Othman Hafnawi appeals to Egypt’s attorney general, claiming Um Rashrash is Egyptian land. An Egyptian lawyer has filed a lawsuit against former president Hosni Mubarak and other state officials for neglecting to “reclaim” Um Rashrash — the Israeli city of Eilat — and demanded that Egypt take the southern resort from Israel. The town, which had been occupied by the British and was claimed by Jordan, was captured by Israel during the War of Independence in March 1949. Egyptian lawyer Othman Hafnawi filed the lawsuit with the country’s attorney general, accusing Mubarak, his former political adviser Osama El-Baz, former foreign minister Mohammed Kamel Amr and other government officials of “not lifting a finger to liberate the area occupied in 1967 [sic].” Hafnawi claimed that the Egyptian region of Um Rashrash consisted of 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) and was home mostly to Christian inhabitants, the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd reported on Sunday. Egypt has never made any claim to the southern resort city, which sits near the border with Sinai. In 2006, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abul Ghaith told Al-Ahram daily that Um Rashrash was not Egyptian land. But attorney Hafnawi insisted that Um Rashrash was Egyptian land, demanding that the court summon Turkey’s ambassador to Egypt to reveal the maps of a 1906 agreement in which the Ottoman Empire handed over the administration of Sinai to Egypt, then under British control. More on: http://www.timesofisrael.com/lawyer-sues-mubarak-for-failing-to-reclaim-eilat/
This is a telephone conversation with Ahlam and her father who are being held hostage for a ransom of 40 000 US dollars by Bedouins in Sinai.
Bedouin chieftain Eissa al-Kharafin demanded Wednesday that an area of 30 square kilometers near the Canal cities should be given back to North Sinai. According to him, the area used to be governed by the North Sinai Governorate until former President Anwar Sadat changed the borders. “Sadat had re-demarcated the area in 1973 and took them from our administrative borders,” he said. “President Mohamed Morsy has allocated LE500 million of Suez Canal revenues to the canal cities. We also have the right to these revenues.” In a meeting with North Sinai Governor Sayed Harhour on Monday, Kharafin said that the people of Sinai would have had more economic opportunities if they'd been living on land near the canal. “We would not have had extremists, for this area would have become a trading place,” he said. Military expert Talaat Abu Moslem described the Bedouin leader’s demands as an attempt to separate Sinai from the rest of Egypt. He said Sadat re-demarcated the area after the peace treaty to promote development to the east and west of the Suez Canal and avoid separating Sinai from the rest of the governorates. “Sinai residents are no different than those of Port Said,” he said. “It was wise of Sadat to keep the unity of the Egyptian fabric.” Almasry Alyoum, via Egypt.com
The Foreign Office [UK] has warned against travel to most of the areas surrounding Egypt's tourist resorts.
Egyptian Armed Forces and Ministry of Interior declared a state of 'High Alert' in Sinai on Saturday following reports that Jihadist groups might conduct terrorist attacks against the army and security forces in North and South Sinai
The FCO has advised against all travel to the Governorate of North Sinai and all but essential travel to the South Sinai region with the exception of the Red Sea Resorts of Sharm el Sheikh, Taba, Nuweiba and Dahab.
It has also excluded road travel between these resorts and transfers between the resorts and airports of Taba and Sharm El Sheikh from its warning. http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature.php?news_id=2005508&c=setreg®ion=2
Jihadist groups operating in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Sunday tested a long range missile during a military drill, Egyptian security sources said.
The missile, believed to have a range of 45 kilometers, was fired from Nekhel in central Sinai towards the direction of Suez, Egyptian military sources told Ma'an.
The missile landed in a desert area and left a crater three meters deep and two meters wide.
Egyptian military experts said it is likely that the missile was an unexploded Israeli ordnance left behind from wars in the Sinai peninsula.
On Saturday, Egypt's Interior Ministry told police in the Sinai peninsula to raise a state of emergency after obtaining intelligence that jihadists might attack their forces there.
Officials have expressed growing worries about security in the desert region which borders Israel and is home to a number of tourist resorts. http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=573421
Le ministère égyptien du tourisme se désole de ne plus voir ces milliers de touristes israéliens qui visitaient autrefois le Sinaï. Aujourd’hui ils sont de moins en moins nombreux à franchir le poste frontière de Taba pour aller profiter des plages ensoleillées en toute saison de Dahab , Nuweiba, ou Sharm-el-Sheikh.
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The most powerful leaders of the tribes across the Sinai Peninsula drove their four-wheelers through the Firan Valley to give President Mohammed Morsi and his government one last chance. The gathering of dozens of widely feared Bedouin kingpins at a summit on April 5 represented a unanimous, unprecedented threat to Egypt’s first democratically elected president. (...) Gen. Mahmoud el-Hefnawi, security chief for the southern Sinai, did not schedule a time to comment on the summit and participants’ remarks. Both of the infuriated tribesmen, Eneizan and el-Delh, had grinned whenever the words “peaceful measures” flowed from the loudspeakers and across the mountains at the summit, which did not determine whether the peaceful ‘politicians’ or the armed ‘militarists’ would prevail. The Sawarka tribe is a tight-knit network of 70,000 relatives extending across the northern third of the Sinai peninsula. One of its leaders had been among the tribesmen who met with Morsi during his visit to Rafah after an attack on a military post there left 16 soldiers dead on Aug. 5, 2012. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he offered one remark: “If it were my decision, I would immediately declare a military wing.” Mohannad Sabry / Al Monitor
More : http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/sinai-tribal-leaders-morsi-ultimatum.html
Sinai security forces arrested 25 Hamas and Al-Qaida suspects attempting to cross from the northern peninsula to the Nile Delta in the South, according to Egyptian media sources.
According to the reports, the army and police force revealed a weapons cache containing explosives, anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles in El-Arish. The suspects were allegedly found in possession of weapons, ammunition and satellite communications equipment, according to sources. They were also said to be found holding maps of strategic installations in the Sinai.
The Jerusalem Post More : http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Egypt-seizes-weaponry-arrests-terrorists-in-Sinai-307698
The family of Amir Omar Hassan, an Israeli citizen who is being held captive in Sinai, expressed hope Sunday that the efforts to secure his release from his Bedouin captors would be successful soon. “I spoke with him on Friday and he sounded very nervous,” Hassan’s brother, Khaled, told Channel 10. “I know there were negotiations for two days in an attempt to reach an agreement". (...) “As time passes and the kidnappers don’t get what they want, the pressure increases. I’ve also turned to the [Israeli] embassy in Egypt, and I hope it will end soon,” he concluded. More on: http://www.timesofisrael.com/family-of-israeli-held-in-egypt-remain-optimistic/
Six hommes armés à bord d'une camionnette ont intercepté la voiture des deux touristes qui circulaient entre la station balnéaire de Taba et celle de Dahab, et les ont forcés sous la menace des armes à monter avec eux, a-t-elle précisé. Un responsable de la police a indiqué que la femme était une Norvégienne de 31 ans. La police avait d'abord affirmé qu'il s'agissait d'une Belge. Le ministère norvégien des Affaires étrangères a confirmé qu'un ressortissant norvégien avait été enlevé vendredi dans le Sinaï, tout en refusant de fournir des précisions sur la personne enlevée et sans dire s'il s'agit d'un homme ou d'une femme. Kidnapping de plus en plus fréquents Les enlèvements d'étrangers se multiplient depuis deux ans dans le Sinaï, en raison de la détérioration de la sécurité après la révolte qui a fait chuter le régime de Hosni Moubarak début 2011. Les périodes de détention ne durent d'ordinaire pas plus de 48 heures. Les kidnappeurs réclament en général la libération de proches détenus par la police. Plus: http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/international/989692/une-belge-et-un-israelien-enleves-en-egypte
"La zone minière pharaonique du Sud-Sinaï-I", par Pierre Tallet. Plans topographiques de Damien Laisney
For years with the knowledge, and some suspect the consent, of the Egyptian government, human trafficking has been going on in the north-eastern part of the Sinai with Bedouins from the Rashaida tribe holding human refugees hostage, demanding unbelievable sums of money for their release. The hostages, mainly from Eritrea but also from Ethiopia and Sudan, are often kidnapped in South Sinai after fleeing their violent countries; some kidnapped even from the UNHCR refugee camps in the region, then transported to the Sinai where they are held in underground locations or buildings housing up to 100 people. They are subjected to unspeakable torture as the kidnappers try to press ransom money from the hostages’ relatives. For this purpose the kidnappers hand cell phones to the hostages and force them to call their relatives at home or overseas, begging for enormous sums of money that can reach $50,000 per person. (Daily news Egypt) More : http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/03/18/193107/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DailyNewsEgypt+%28Daily+News+Egypt%29
The perpetrators of a deadly attack on an army camp in Rafah that which killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in August, included 40 Palestinian Jihadists, an informed military source told the privately-owned Shorouk newspaper. He added that sovereign authorities were informed that the Palestinian jihadists entered while troops were occupied with the local security failure.
The source said that the National Security Agency and other sovereign authorities deployed personnel in the Sinai peninsula, at the border and crossings to arrest jihadists, who he said are trying to enter Egypt with Egyptian names. The source said that the forensic medicine department report, which was submitted to military prosecution, said that DNA could not be extracted from bodies of the seven perpetrators during autopsy.
Meanwhile, senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh renewed the movement’s denial that Hamas members took part in the attack on the checkpoint.
An investigative report published in Al-Ahram Al-Arabi magazine accused figures associated with Hamas of the attack.
President Mohamed Morsy used the crisis to sideline the old leadership of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who he sent to retirement, replacing them with a second rank of officers.
In a phone call with the head of the Wafd Party, Al-Sayyed al-Badawy, Haniyeh said the Palestinian people will never forget sacrifices made and are still being made by Egyptians for the Palestinian cause.
“Egypt’s strength, safety and stability is a strength for all the Arab nation. We can never allow its safety and people to be harmed,” he added. http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/palestinian-jihadists-attacked-rafah-base-says-military-source
Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a Gaza-based senior Hamas leader, said on Thursday that "relations between Hamas and Egypt are better than ever before." Referring to news reports about the presence of Palestinian training camps in Sinai, Al-Zahar commented: "The security apparatus in Egypt understands that there was no any truth about the 7,000 Hamas followers who entered Egypt." There have been reports in both the Egyptian and the Israeli media over the past few weeks that three training camps are operating in northern Sinai, associated with Al-Qaeda linked Egyptian group Ansar Al-Jihad, as well as other Islamist groups, Jund Muhammad, Jund Al-Islam, Tawhid and the Gaza-based Al- Jihad. "If this was true, the security bodies would have called and asked for information about them, but this did not happen," Al-Zahar told Egyptian state news agency MENA. He said that there were no Palestinians sent to trial from Gaza in light of these accusations. (Ahram Online) More : http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/66847/Egypt/Politics-/No-Hamas-training-camps-in-Sinai-AlZahar.aspx
The declaration of a state of emergency in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on March 9 in anticipation of planned jihadist attacks on government targets indicates the seriousness of a systemic security breakdown that threatens to destabilize not only Egypt but also its volatile borders with Gaza and Israel. With an estimated 1,600 extremists on the loose in Sinai, it’s no wonder this 23,000-square-mile desert has been ominously dubbed, “the new Afghanistan.” A land bridge linking the black markets and fragile states of North Africa with the greater Middle East, Sinai has become a transcontinental corridor of organized crime and global terrorism. It is a place where masked gunmen routinely hijack police cars in broad daylight, jihadists brazenly test-fire long-range missiles from rogue training camps, and gangs of human traffickers sell sub-Saharan refugees into slavery, or worse, steal their organs. In the economically destitute and politically disenfranchised governorates of North and South Sinai, the need for law and order has never been more acute, yet public confidence in the central government is at an all-time low. After decades of economic mismanagement and a misguided counter-terrorism crackdown that resulted in the mass incarceration of thousands of Bedouins – whose twenty some-odd tribes account for roughly 70 percent of the population of the North and South Sinai governorates – the Egyptian state is associated not with security, but with incompetence, repression and predatory corruption. In a region where government officials are an object of pubic disdain and anger, it is unsurprising that residents of Sinai are looking elsewhere for security and justice. Increasingly, they are turning to a growing number of informal Islamic courts, which are steadily displacing an official justice system viewed as corrupt and inefficient. Since the revolution, informal Islamic courts claim to have absorbed an estimated 75 percent of the caseload once handled by the official justice system. These courts – which operate on shoestring budgets in basements and school classrooms after hours – have successfully capitalized on the fragility of the state in their campaign to promote Sharia law as the only legitimate alternative to what would otherwise be a legal vacuum.
( Xinhua ) Dimanche matin, un groupe d'activistes a lancé un missile en direction de Suez depuis la ville de Nekhel dans le Sinaï, mais le projectile a explosé à 45 km de Nekhel, a appris Xinhua auprès d'un haut responsable chargé de la sécurité dans le Sinaï.
"Des activistes basés dans le Sinaï ont lancé un missile sol-sol de fabrication israélienne qui a explosé dans la zone Bear 5 de la municipalité de Nekhel", a confirmé notre source, ajoutant que l'explosion avait fait un trou de 2 mètres de profondeur et de 1,5 mètre de diamètre.
Le ministère égyptien de l'Intérieur a placé le Sinaï en état d'alerte maximale samedi après avoir été informé par les services de renseignements que des groupes armés avaient l'intention de lancer des attaques contre des locaux de la police.
En août 2012, au moins 13 gardes-frontières égyptiens ont été tués dans le Sinaï par des hommes armés. http://french.peopledaily.com.cn/96852/8161550.html
Security are on heightened alert in the strategic Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel after they were tipped off that jihadist groups will attack police institutions. Egypt's interior ministry has raised the state of emergency in northern and southern Sinai, General Osama Ismail, assistant to the interior minister in Sinai, quotes MENA, the official state news agency on Saturday. Ismail says that security forces received information that jihadist groups intend to launch attacks on police institutions in the strategic peninsula. He also assures that the ministry continues to work with tribal leaders in Sinai to maintain security. The Sinai has been home to several jihadist groups and has seen several attacks on police and security forces in the past years. More on: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/66462.aspx
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