ISIL affiliate in Egypt plans ‘big operation’ in southern Israel

Special to WorldTribune.com

The Egyptian affiliate of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is planning a major attack in southern Israel, a Salafist operative warned in a radio interview.

“It is only a question of time when there will be a big operation in Eilat and in the south of Israel,” Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip said in an interview on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.

Sinai Province jihadists. /Wikimedia/Arab Media
Sinai Province jihadists. /Wikimedia/Arab Media

Ansari said that Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province), the Egyptian affiliate of ISIL, “will be the pioneers in this confrontation with Israel.”

“The Islamic State educates its people that Israel and the United States are the leaders of the infidels and we believe that Israel should be disappeared,” Ansari told Klein.

Col. Yehuda Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s Sagi Brigade operating on the border with Egypt, said last year that “it’s clear that there will be a terror attack against Israel, I believe that it will happen during my tenure.”

“I teach my people to expect it to come tomorrow, to always be ready for it,” Cohen said in an interview with Army Radio.

“When it happens, my doctrine is that we must strike a very strong blow at the same point and ensure that there are zero successful actions for the enemy.”