Israel: Maintaining Peace Treaty With Egypt vital
Top defense official reiterates treaty vital to both sides.
Jihad terror group claims responsibility for Friday attack.
Israel and Egypt battling Islamic terrorists in Sinai.
A top Israeli security official said Sunday that maintaining the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt is a top national priority. He reiterated that both sides are working to neutralize terrorists who staged the deadly attack Friday that left an Israeli soldier dead.
“Israel views the keeping of the peace treaty (with Egypt) as of the utmost importance,” Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad said in an Israel Army Radio interview. Gilad, the head of the security and diplomacy section of Israel’s defense ministry, downplayed news reports about calls to amend the treaty and said both Israel and Egypt see that the problem of terrorism in the Sinai requires urgent attention.
Both sides know that peace is in each other’s interest, GIlad said, adding that neither side could demand changes to the mutually agreed conditions that are under international supervision.
The Ansar Bayt al-Maqdes terrorist group claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in which three terrorists were killed after they attacked Israeli troops from the Egyptian side of the border. The same group is responsible for an attack in August where 16 Egyptian border guards were killed by terrorists who then blew open the Israeli border fence before being stopped and killed by the IDF on Israeli territory.
The terrorist group previously claimed it attacked a pipeline used to deliver gas to Israel. They also claimed responsibility for rocket attacks targeting Israel, Reuters reported.
Jihadi terrorists have strengthened their presence in the Sinai peninsula by staging more attacks against Israeli and Egyptian targets. Egypt’s control over the Sinai has deteriorated in the wake of the fall of the Mubarak government. Following the August attack Egyptian defense forces moved additional troops and armor to the Sinai to try and re-assert law and order. News From Jerusalem