Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Egypt and Israel have launched a secret campaign to
eliminate the insurgency presence in the divided city of Rafah.

Military sources said Egypt and Israel were coordinating operations
against hundreds of insurgents in Rafah, divided between the Sinai Peninsula
and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
The sources said Cairo and Jerusalem, supported by the United States, were sharing intelligence on insurgency threats and coordinating air strikes in the Sinai portion of Rafah.

“The goal is to drive out the jihadists and block the tunnels that connect the two parts of the city,” a source said.

The sources said this represented the highest level of military cooperation between Egypt and Israel since their peace treaty in 1979. They said Egypt’s new military-backed regime has determined that it could no
longer tolerate the flow of fighters and weapons from the Gaza Strip.

“Sinai has become a serious problem from a security point of view,”
[Res.] Maj. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, the former chief of operations, said. “Like
Afghanistan, it has become an unmanageable territory.”

A leading Israeli defense analyst said Israel and the United States were
helping the new regime in Cairo regain control over Sinai. Amir Rapaport
asserted that Egypt’s military was working with Israel to trap Al
Qaida-aligned fighters in Rafah and prevent their escape to the Gaza Strip.

“The Egyptian interest is absolutely clear: Prevent the passage of
jihadists who come from the Gaza Strip to reinforce those fighting the
Egyptian military in Sinai,” Rapaport said.

Egypt and Israel have not acknowledged the unprecedented border security
cooperation. Both countries denied reports that an Israel Air Force unmanned
aerial vehicle killed five Al Qaida fighters and blew up a rocket launch
site in eastern Sinai on Aug. 9. Egypt’s military said the attack was
conducted by two of its helicopters.

“There is no operational coordination in the sense of ‘Either we’ll
attack or you’ll attack,’ ” former National Security Adviser Giora Eiland
said. “But there is intelligence cooperation that I imagine is now at a
higher level because of the greater trust and common ground between the
sides.”

The sources said Egypt was conducting the most intensive
counter-insurgency campaign in Sinai since its return to the peninsula in
1982. They said the CI offensive would take weeks if not months and involve
casualties on both military and insurgents.

“In any case, the major tension in the south will remain at least until
the end of the summer,” Rapaport said in an analysis for the Israeli daily
Maariv on Aug. 11.

  Gaza Strip, Giora Eiland, Israel helping Egypt regain control over Sinai, Maj. Gen. Yisrael Ziv, Rafah