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Rocket from Sinai hits southern Israel as IS threat grows in the region

A rocket fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, exploded this afternoon in Israel’s southern Eshkol regional council. No injuries or damage were reported in the strike that hit an open area. The rocket fire came just hours after Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau has upgraded its warning to Israelis not to visit Egypt’s Sinai region, due to a further increase in the gravity of an immediate threat posed to them in the lawless peninsula. The bureau also announced that Israel’s Taba border crossing would be closed during the Jewish holiday of Passover, an unprecedented move that reflects the severity of the situation. It further noted that the lethal terrorist onslaught in Egypt, in which at least 44 people were killed and dozens of others wounded, once again reflected the capability of the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the bombings, to commit terror attacks. 

The terror attacks in Egypt, were the latest against its Christian minority increasingly targeted by Islamist militants, and a challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect them as part of his campaign against extremism in general. The first bombing, in Tanta, a Nile Delta city about 100 km north of Cairo, tore through the inside of St. George Church during its Palm Sunday service, killing at least 27 people and injuring at least 78 others. The second, a few hours later in the city of Alexandria, hit Saint Mark’s Cathedral, the historic seat of the Coptic Pope, killing 17 people, including three police officers, and injuring 48 others. 

“Today we said goodbye to pure youths. I tell them, may your souls rest in peace, but sadness fills my heart.” / “Believe me, it’s a miserable and painful feeling to go through this cruel experience. We were not expecting people who live with us in the same country, people whom we’ve shared love and friendships with, and whom we’re familiar with, to do these things,” said Hala Mostokly, Christian Member of Egypt’s Parliament.

The deadly terror attacks in Egypt have prompted Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare a nation-wide state of emergency for the next three months. 

 “Several steps are to be taken, the first of which will be the declaration of a state of emergency after the necessary legal and constitutional procedures are complete, for three months in Egypt. We are announcing this state of emergency only to protect our country and secure it, and to prevent any interference with it,” said Tawfik Kobeish, Tanta Priest.

The Islamic State’s branch in Egypt has stepped up attacks and threats against Christians, who comprise about 10 percent of Egypt’s 90 million people and are the biggest Christian minority in the Middle East.