Jordan Times
RAFAH — Egypt began to seal off smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a security source said, two days after gunmen shot dead 16 Egyptian border guards in an attack blamed partly on Palestinian militants.
As officials considered how to respond to the deadliest assault along Egypt’s tense Sinai Peninsula border with Israel and Gaza in decades, crowds of angry mourners wept at the military funeral of the slain guards in Cairo.
Lawlessness in the rugged desert has spread since the fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in an uprising 18 months ago and the election of an Islamist successor whose commitment to security cooperation with Israel has yet to be tested.
A Reuters reporter in the border town of Rafah said heavy equipment was brought to the Egyptian side of the tunnels, which are used to smuggle people to and from Gaza as well as food and fuel that are a lifeline for the small territory’s population.
“The campaign aims at closing all the openings between Egypt and the Gaza Strip that are used in smuggling operations,” said the security source.
The government in Cairo said the gunmen behind Sunday’s attack had reached Egypt via the Gaza smuggling tunnels.
Israel says Palestinian jihadi groups have been crossing from Gaza into Egypt and exploiting the security vacuum there by teaming up with local militants with the aim of attacking Israel’s long border running south to the Red Sea.
Sinai-based militants sworn to destroying Israel have repeatedly attacked a gas pipeline to Israel as well as Egyptian police stations and security checkpoints. Eight Israelis have been killed in border attacks in the past year.
New Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi quickly pledged to bring the region back under government control after Sunday’s attack, the worst since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979, ending a succession of wars.
No one has claimed responsibility. The Egyptian army said 35 militants were involved and that mortar bombs fired from Gaza landed in the area during the operation.
Note by the editor: … and that the attackers fled to Israel. Why is that not mentioned in this article?