Israel/Egypt: Clashes at Sinai-Israeli border Oct. 29

Event

On Sunday night, October 29, gunfire from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt spilled over across the border into Israel. According to the Israeli military, this cross-border gunfire was likely accidental. There were no reports of casualties, although an Israeli army vehicle was reportedly slightly damaged.

Additionally, two policemen were reportedly killed and ten others injured in an attack on Sunday in the Egyptian town of Al-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula - the latest in a series of deadly attacks in the region.

Context

Egypt is struggling to combat an insurgency by Islamic State’s (IS) local branch in the Sinai, where hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since 2013. Northeastern Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, has been particularly volatile. Egypt is currently under a state of emergency, originally declared following IS attacks on churches in Alexandria and Tanta, which killed 44 people on Palm Sunday in April 2017.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace agreement in 1979 establishing military restrictions in the Sinai Peninsula, which links mainland Egypt and Israel. However, an Islamist insurgency established itself in the Sinai Peninsula after President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown in a coup by the Egyptian military in 2013. In April 2017, IS's Egyptian branch claimed responsibility for a number of cross-border rocket launches, and various cross-borders military incidents (rocket launches, airstrikes, assaults on suspected terrorists, etc.) have since occurred between Egypt and Israel in the Sinai Peninsula.

Advice

Due to the ongoing terrorist threat, travelers to Israel and Egypt are advised to report any suspicious objects or behavior to the authorities and to remain vigilant when visiting sites deemed particularly likely to be targeted in an attack (public transportation, train stations, ports, airports, public or government buildings, embassies or consulates, international organizations, schools and universities, religious sites, markets, hotels and restaurants frequented by foreigners/Westerners, etc.). As a reminder, some Western governments advise their citizens against all travel to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and areas near the Israeli-Lebanese, Israeli-Syrian, and Israeli-Egyptian borders, as well as the Sinai Peninsula, due to the persistent terrorist threat.