CAIRO: Egypt aided Israel in the assassination of a Gaza operative called Mohamed Namnam, Time magazine claimed in an article published Wednesday.
Namnam, 27, affiliated with the Army of Islam, not Hamas, was assassinated in Gaza Nov. 3 when an Israeli helicopter targeted his car from long-range. The article alleges that Egypt had tipped off Israel about Namnam because he was planning operations in Sinai.
This Egypt had apparently learned from Army of Islam operatives it had captured in the peninsula, and Egyptian intelligence passed along the tip to Israel. A regional security source told the American magazine that security cooperation between Egypt and Israel is advanced, saying, “Egypt is helping [Israel] much more.”
The magazine said that the reason behind Egypt’s increased cooperation was the regime’s anger at the discovery of a Hezbollah operated cell in Sinai which was supplying weapons to the Gaza Strip and allegedly planning targets within Egypt.
On Thursday the web portal Masrawy reported the capture of a terrorist cell in Sinai planning attacks against Israeli tourists and peacekeeping forces in Sinai. The cell is allegedly tied to the Army of Islam in Gaza, indicating a correlation between the arrests and the Namnam assassination. Twenty-five people were arrested in Sinai starting from Nov. 3, the same day of the Namnam assassination and up until last Tuesday.
While the 25 that were arrested were all Egyptian, authorities claim that Palestinians in Gaza were also part of the operation and have a list of names affiliated with the Army of Islam. The report says that security forces had received information about the proliferation of extremist religious ideologies in Sinai near the border with Gaza.
Claiming that this new cell was formed in the wake of the discovery of the Hezbollah cell, sources told Masrawy that the group was also planning to infiltrate Israel to carry out attacks there.
The report claimed that the members had infiltrated Gaza through the tunnels beneath the border and received training in bomb making while in the territory.
Israel’s government on Thursday told its citizens to immediately leave Egypt’s Sinai desert because of a kidnapping threat from the Army of Islam, following the arrests made by Egypt.
Egyptian security officials speaking on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press they received an intelligence tip from Israel about the group. But they didn’t identify the cell.
The militants planned to attack Israeli tourists in southern Sinai during the upcoming Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, which starts Tuesday, as well as the foreign peacekeeping forces, the officials reportedly told AP.
The travel warning was issued late Thursday by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office. – Additional reporting by AP.
