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Israel bolsters Sinai border after missile attack on military patrol Palestinian driver in East Jerusalem kills baby, wounds 8 in train station attack
(about 3 hours later)
JERUSALEM — Israel dispatched additional forces to its southern border on Wednesday after an antitank missile was fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula at a military patrol vehicle, the Israeli army said. JERUSALEM — A Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem drove his car into a crowded light-rail station Wednesday, killing a 3-month-old baby and wounding eight people, two of them seriously, according to Israeli police.
There has been a sharp increase in Islamist radical groups operating in the Sinai since the fraying of Egypt’s security forces after the 2011 Arab Spring revolution. The driver was identified as Abd al-Rahman al-Shaludi, a resident of the Silwan neighborhood who, according to police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, has been previously jailed in Israel for involvement in terrorist activities.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, gave no immediate details on the possible origins of the attack. But local media reported an exchange of fire in the area, raising speculation of links to the extremist group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which operates along the border. “Police arrived on the scene, and the driver was shot as he attempted to flee the vehicle,” Rosenfeld said. Police said that Shaludi was critically injured and that his exact motives were unclear.
The incident injured two soldiers — a man and a woman — who are part of a mixed-gender military unit that patrols the border with Egypt. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately drew a link between Shaludi’s actions and Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules the Gaza strip. Israel and Hamas, deemed a terrorist entity by Israel and the United States, fought a 50-day war this summer.
Lerner said it was not clear whether there also had been a cross-border infiltration at the site of the attack. Additional forces were brought in, he said. In a statement, Netanyahu criticized Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s choice of “partners in government,” a reference to a unity deal reached earlier this year between Abbas’s moderate Fatah party and Hamas.
On Tuesday, Ramzi Mawafi, doctor to former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and one of the militants known to be operating in the Sinai, was designated by the State Department as a “global terrorist.” Netanyahu also accused Abbas of incitement “toward a terrorist attack in Jerusalem,” citing a speech he delivered a few days ago in the West Bank city of Ramallah in which he said Palestinians would not “kneel” or drop demands for a capital in East Jerusalem.
“This is an interesting coincidence, but it is unlikely the attack was in response to this. Such attacks take time to prepare,” said Aviv Oreg, former head of the al-Qaeda and global jihad desk in Israeli military intelligence. Events this past summer, including the July 2 killing of teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir by alleged Jewish extremists, have prompted protests by Arab residents of East Jerusalem. Some of those demonstrations have turned violent, and attacks on the Jerusalem light rail have become almost routine.
He said the goal of such groups is to draw Israel into a conflict in the Sinai, which would mean a violation of Egyptian sovereignty and would cause friction between Israel and Egypt, which have a peace accord. “I do not see an end to this unrest,” said Shaul Bartal, a retired Israeli major. “This is a popular protest, and it is growing. The police have arrested more than 800 people, charged more than half of them, but it does not help. There are still more people ready to demonstrate.”
In recent months — and especially during the war this summer between Israel and the militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip — Egypt and the Jewish state have appeared united in their fight against extremist Islamist groups. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called the situation “intolerable” and said more police would be “sent into neighborhoods where there are disturbances, placing them strategically and widely in significant numbers.”
Egypt has escalated efforts to regain control over the Sinai, but extremist groups have managed to waged attacks on Israeli-linked targets over the past few years. Earlier in the day, Israel also dispatched additional forces to its southern border after an antitank missile was fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula at a military patrol vehicle, the Israeli army said.
In February, an explosion tore through a bus bringing tourists from Egypt to Israel, killing four Korean nationals and the Egyptian driver. In 2012, the Israeli mixed-gender Caracal battalion killed three militants attempting to cross the border. A year earlier, another infiltration left six Israeli civilians dead and 40 more wounded. Initially, suspicion fell on the Islamist militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which operates along the border and has attempted to infiltrate Israel in the past. However, an army inquiry suggested that the attack was a violent drug smuggling attempt.
The militant groups operating in the Sinai also have asserted responsibility for firing mortar rounds and rockets into the southern Israeli city of Eilat, as well as the nearby Jordanian resort of Aqaba. According to the army, its patrol was fired upon from three locations. Two soldiers — a man and a woman — were injured.