Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Egypt has been concerned over the prospect of rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Security sources reported a stream of rocket attacks from the neighboring Gaza Strip during the 50-day Hamas war with Israel.

The sources said the rockets, believed to have been fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, landed near the divided border town of Rafah in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

“The rockets are certainly coming from the Gaza Strip,” a source said.

So far, Egypt reported at least three lethal rocket strikes from Gaza. On Aug. 13, a 13-year-old girl was killed and her two siblings seriously injured when a Gaza rocket landed in the Sinai town of Matalah south of Rafah.

The sources said the Egyptian Army was investigating the rocket fire. They said the assessment was that most of the landings were the result of awry rocket launches from the southern Gaza Strip.

Hamas and its Palestinian militia allies have fired rockets from southern Sinai in attacks on the Israeli port of Eilat. The sources said Egypt and Israel were cooperating in efforts to locate and eliminate Palestinian rocket squads.

Palestinians also intensified infiltration attempts in Sinai amid the war with Israel. On Aug. 17, Egypt reported the capture of 17 Palestinians in the northern provincial capital of El Arish after they emerged from tunnels from the Gaza Strip.

“They were headed to the Mediterranean city of Alexandria from where they intended to illegally cross to Europe,” Egypt’s official Middle East News Agency said.

  Eilat, El Arish, Hama rocket said to kill 13-year-old Egyptian girl in the Sinai, Islmaic Jihad, Rafah