The Salafi Jihad in Sinai and the Mujahedeen Shura Council blamed the Saturday deaths of four militants in Agraa in Rafah, North Sinai on an Israeli drone, in Sunday statements addressed to Israel, the Egyptian army and Sinai tribes.
Both statements blamed the deaths on an Israeli raid, before identifying the four victims as members of Jamaat Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, a group which claimed responsibility for previous rocket attacks on Eilat in 2011.
Salafi Jihad said: “What happened added to the violations against the people of Sinai.”
The Mujahedeen Shura Council accused the Egyptian army directly of facilitating the attack saying: ‘This treacherous raid would not have come about without [its] direct coordination.”
The group associated “rapid political changes occur within the land of Egypt” with the “Israeli attack on the Sinai.”
The council also called upon Sinai tribes to “use what happened as motivation to unite in the wake of the death of Sinai’s son’s.”
The Egyptian army spokesman denied any attacks from the Israeli side, saying: “the claim that there is coordination between the Egyptian and Israeli sides in this regard is totally false and contrary to reason and logic.”
