SINAI/ Fattah: dark forces aim to start a war between Egypt and Israel

“The terrorists struck Sinai in a sacrilegious way, attacking at the hour of Iftar when Muslims break the fast of Ramadan. Their goal was to set off a war between Egypt and Israel, but they will not be able to hurt the collaboration between the two neighboring countries that aim to defeat the threat of Islamic fundamentalism.” These were the words of Professor Abdel Fattah Hasan, a prominent member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the movement to which Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi belongs. On Sunday, a terrorist commando stormed the border between Israel and Egypt on some armored vehicles and took the lives of 16 guards from Cairo who were having dinner. Yesterday the Israeli Army and Air Force were able to kill five of the bombers.

Professor Fattah, are the terrorists Islamic fundamentalists?
It is too early to tell, but I want to emphasize the fact that this attack was an act of cowardice. In fact, they waited until the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, until just after sunset, and then hit the officers and soldiers during the Iftar, the meal that takes place after fasting. The attackers also took advantage of the huge distance between checkpoints in the Sinai desert, where the number of guards is not large enough for the very large area to be monitored.

What do the Sinai terrorists want and why are they striking now?
There are many factions that are playing dirty against Egypt, and to identify them we must wait for the outcome of the investigations undertaken by the authorities. The political and military leadership is discussing and examining the situation. The fact is that Egyptian security forces recently blocked large quantities of weapons and missiles from the western border with Libya.

And so?
My belief is that the terrorists, through the smuggling of weapons, were aiming to launch missiles against Israel with the aim of creating a war between the Jewish state and Egypt. When the Egyptian security forces blocked the traffic of the arsenal, the terrorists decided to take revenge by killing the officers and soldiers. This is also shown by the fact that, next to their corpses, they left weapons as a way to claim responsibility and to indicate the reason for the massacre.

Do the attackers represent a threat to Egypt's national security?