IED's, Egypt, Israel and the Sinai Peninsula

CAIRO: On April 7 an improvised explosive device (IED) was found along the 200 kilometer desert border shared between Israel and Egypt. It was possibly a sign that an “insurgency” could be in the making, officials said.
Military sources stated that the bomb was successfully detonated without any injuries. This IED discovery was not the first found in Sinai. Last November, another IED was uncovered.
Israeli military believe that Hamas has aligned itself with Islamic groups in the Sinai in what they say is an attempt to help orchestrate bombings against Israeli civilians.
According to Ted Seal, the former military attaché to Egypt and Yemen, this is not a rare occurrence in this expanse of desert.
“They [Multinational Forces] deal with it on a regular basis – each side has liaisons. The MFO deal with it frequently and efficiently,” he said.
The Multinational Forces and Observers (MFO), a peacekeeping force composed of twelve countries ranging from the United States and the Republic of Fiji, were put in place in the once Israeli-occupied Sinai after former Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat brokered a peace deal with Israel in 1979.
The treaty called for full Israeli withdrawal by April 1982 from Sinai proper and its return to Egyptian control.
The MFO were meant to keep the peace in the peninsula and part of their mission is to patrol and observe the Gaza border between Egypt, thus placing the MFO in joint responsibilities with Egyptian and Israeli security forces to stop arms smuggling, restrict illegal immigration and contain the growing militancy of recent years.
It is this security coalition, according to Seal, that has been finding IEDs in the Sinai for the past 7 years.
“The main motives for the terrorists to plant them are to disrupt security, incite political reactions and make the desert less safe for tourists,” said Seal. Egypt’s tourist industry brings in $6.6 billion a year, the ministry of tourism reported, and these militants aim to make diving retreats and resorts like Sharm el-Sheik and Dahab less safe for sun-seeking Europeans.
The MFO, along with Israeli and Egyptian security forces, have concerns that it might be Bedouin tribes aiding in the IED placements and terrorist attacks in Sinai.
It was Bedouin smugglers believed to have aided in the April 7 incident and the one in November, as well as multiple bombings in al-Arish, Nuwieba, Dahab and Sharm el Sheik over the past decade; all which collectively killed over a hundred people.
The Bedouin involvement in these attacks are not necessarily because of political motives but more to profit from the $200 million a year smuggling network into Gaza.
“The disaffected Bedouin tribal groups see multimillion dollar resorts being built on their grazing land – land that they have used for centuries – and they never see one guinea from it,” said Seal.
A report from the Jewish Policy Center concerning Gaza smuggling pointed out this economic exclusion of Egypt’s tribal Bedouin, thus explaining why young Bedouin men are eventually driven to risk everything to be a part of this underground, yet lucrative business.
The mission of containing and suppressing militancy in the Sinai Peninsula is a demanding one for the MFO, Israel and Egypt. The conflict in the area is no longer clearly about land sovereignty between Israel and Egypt but rather a more complicated one involving multiple and elusive players.
Those involved, whether bitter Bedouin, Palestinian Hamas or homegrown Egyptian terrorists from Cairo, are going to be difficult to track and arrest, officials argue.
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