The ruling military council faces public criticism following Israel's killing of five soldiers, reports Amirah Ibrahim As the Egyptian army continues operations against armed terrorist groups in Sinai the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has said little about Israel's killing of five Egyptian soldiers in a cross-border attack. The crisis erupted last Thursday when militants carried out three attacks against vehicles in the Israeli resort town of Eilat, killing eight people. Israel claimed the attackers had slipped over the border from Gaza into Egypt and thence to Eilat. Israeli security forces chased the attackers using Apache helicopters, from which they fired on an Egyptian border guard unit on duty north of Taba. Three soldiers were killed immediately. A further two died the following day from injuries sustained in the attack. The killings sparked the most serious diplomatic crisis between Egypt and Israel since the Camp David peace accords three decades ago. Waves of contradicting reports appeared throughout Thursday night claiming there were more victims in Arish and confrontations along the Israeli-Egyptian border. The incident prompted an outpouring of public anger in Egypt, and almost total silence on the part of the ruling military council. "We are not seeking war. We respect the peace treaty we signed more than 30 years ago with Israel," said a military source in reply to a question over whether the SCAF was considering "a strong" response to the attack. "Since we signed the peace accord in 1979, both Israel and Egypt have respected their provision. Egypt has never violated the accord. The MFO troops in Sinai can confirm this." An MFO report said that Israel's actions breached the 1979 peace treaty. "It violated the treaty twice, once when it crossed the borders and again when it shot dead five Egyptian soldiers while on duty," said the report. "Power is not a magic wand that solves every problem. Nations do not go to war for the sake of avenging five soldiers," said the military source. On Saturday Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak expressed "regret" over the deaths. The statement appeared to be enough to encourage the Egyptian government to backtrack on its earlier threats to recall Egypt's ambassador to Tel Aviv. The anger of the public has been less easily assuaged, with demonstrations and sit-ins held outside the Israeli embassy in Giza and the ambassador's residence in Maadi. Many protesters accused the government of playing up to public hostility to Israel, while behind the scenes seeking to placate the West by not upsetting Israel. Meanwhile, the Quartet issued a statement encouraging Egypt to adopt a lasting security solution in Sinai. This, at least, was somet hing to which the military council was willing to reply. The SCAF made a short statement on Sunday declaring that security in the Sinai Peninsula was a domestic issue. "The security of Sinai is an Egyptian internal affair and Egypt does not accept any interference in this respect," it said. Over the last few weeks security forces have been busy trying to root out extremists who have used the vacuum left by the country's political upheaval to attack pipelines supplying Israel and Jordan with gas four times this year. The recent crisis has lent urgency to claims that security cannot be restored in Sinai without serious development. Two military committees have been set up, one covering the north and the other the south of the peninsula. They have already held preliminary meetings with local sheikhs and representatives of Sinai's Bedouin in an attempt to foster development projects and enhance security. Sinai Bedouins have long complained of mistreatment by central government. Repeated arrests and detainment without charge of local men, and the refusal to allow local Bedouin to register and own land that they have worked for generations, has bred resentment and stymied development. On Monday the cabinet approved the creation of a Supreme Authority for the Development of Sinai to boost investment and improve security. The authority will report directly to the prime minister.
