The Muslim Brotherhood sought to contain and indirectly coordinate with the Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis group, currently known as the "Province of Sinai", the core part of the Islamic State terror group through a number of understandings since it took power. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis' military power started to manifest itself through bombing gas pipelines to Israel via the Sinai Peninsula as well as launching rockets at the Israeli border from the heart of the Sinai desert. These operations made a debut for a new organization that well-prepared its elements to blow up here and there and to target the Egyptian police stations as well as military facilities everywhere. The then president Mohamed Morsi agreed with the terror group not to detonate the gas pipelines to Israel in return for not ratifying death sentences against members of al-Tawhid and Jihad terrorist organization, which shows the strength of ties between the two sides. Such understandings gave an opportunity for the Province of Sinai to catch breath and summon up. The terrorist attacks did not confine to the Sinai that witnessed the birth of the organization but extended to all Egyptian provinces in an attempt to deliver a message that "we are strong and able to harm you everywhere, and therefore we can expand the circle of conflict". Ansar Bait al-Maqdis' operations were not confined to bombings, but included sniper attacks against police officers and military personnel that took advantage of the ouster of the Brotherhood from power in July 2013. All security reports called upon then president Morsi to deal with Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, but he preferred a political deal to contain such terror groups, meeting a promise the Brotherhood had made with the US administration in order to run for the 2012 presidential elections that they were able to contain the jihadist organizations in the Sinai and elsewhere that threaten Israel's security and to submerge them in political life. Morsi sought to meet his promise with the U.S. and to make the jihadist group a hinterland for the Brotherhood at the same time. The Brotherhood's management of this file created a ghost that is hard to eliminate despite efforts by security forces. Leaders of the Tawhid and Jihad group are themselves the leaders of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis. The group was first established by Dr. Khalid Mosa'ed, under the name of "Al-Takfir wal Jihad", then turned to "Supporters of the Jihad", then the "Tawheed and Jihad" and finally "Ansar Bait al-Maqdis", a pop-up of a group called "Ansar al-Sunna in the environs of Jerusalem" founded in the Gaza Strip. Perhaps the founders of the group resorted to this name in an attempt to gather Muslims all over the world who support the Palestinian case, which gave the group and their cause a considerable momentum that helped the organizational structure after the June 30 Revolution. In any case, the non-ratification of death sentences against the Tawhid and Jihad leaders was the nucleus of visible and invisible cooperation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis in Egypt.
