CAIRO: Muhammad Eid Musleh Hamad, also known as Muhammad al-Teehi, leader of the Islamist organization Takfir wal Hijra, was arrested on Sunday, Egyptian security officials reported. Al-Teehi was detained in the northern Sinai city al-Arish after a joint police and army operation. According to Palestine's Ma'an News Agency, al-Teehi was accused of planning the deadly attacks in Israeli border city Eilat in August, as well as a number of attacks in the Egyptian peninsula. However, Egyptian daily newspaper Youm7 did not mention any connection to the August attacks in their report of the arrest. Youm7 reported that al-Teehi was involved in attacking police facilities, bombing and killing soldiers in al-Arish. Also, he was said to have attacked the central security headquarters at the Rafah border crossing and to have distributed flyers inciting violence against police forces. Other Egyptian dailies reported likewise, that al-Teehi was detained for the numerous gas pipeline bombings, and did not mention the August attack on Eilat. In the August 18 attack on Eilat, a number of Israeli vehicles near Eilat were bombed, and 8 Israelis were killed. Israel subsequently blamed the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees, who denied any involvement. Within hours of the attack, Israeli forces struck back at targets in southern Gaza, leading to four days of cross border violence that killed 15 Palestinians and wounded more than 50. Five Egyptian soldiers were also killed by Israeli military in the incident. The actual cause of their death has been highly disputed, as the Israeli military refuses to take the blame. The death of the Egyptian soldiers triggered a diplomatic row between Egypt and Israel and led to mass protests outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo. In addition to the arrest of al-Teehi, Egyptian security sources reported that an additional 16 people had been detained on Sunday by Egyptian security forces. The 16 are suspected to be connected to the recurrent attacks on a pipeline for the supply of gas to Israel and Jordan, a security source said on Sunday. Such an attack was launched on Thursday morning in a row of strikes on the pipelines now counting 7 since Egypt's popular uprising ousted former President Hosni Mubarak in early February. Egyptian officials have been arguing that control of the Sinai border area is hardly maintained, as Egypts landmark peace agreement of 1979 with Israel limited the number of Egyptian soldiers allowed in the area. This has prompted the Egyptian security apparatus to rely on Bedouin leadership in the area “to help security apparatus with the investigation and give us hints of any other destructive acts,” Egyptian security officials of the North Sinai were quoted saying in February by Reuters news agency. Egypt's 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, has been very unpopular with the Egyptian public. Opposition groups have long complained that Egyptian gas is sold to Israel at preferential prices and that the gas trade deal violated bureaucratic regulations. The government insisted it was done on commercial terms and everything was in order. Israel gets 40 percent of its natural gas from Egypt due to the deal built from the peace accord of 1979. The company that supplies Egyptian gas to Israel is East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), and one of the major shareholders in the company is Mubarak associate and former Egyptian intelligence chief Hussein Salem. Previous attacks on the pipelines to Israel have closed GASCO, a subsidiary of the national Egyptian gas company EGAS, for weeks. After the ousting of Mubarak, attacks on the pipelines increased, and Islamist groups were accused of taking advantage of the insecure situation to get back at Israel. The SITE intelligence group, which monitors al-Qaeda and other Islamist websites, quoted one Islamist website in February saying: “To our brothers, the Bedouins of Sinai, the heroes of Islam, strike with an iron fist because this is a chance to stop the supply to the Israelites.” The controversial gas supply was temporarily halted in February, but has been occasionally functioning despite the attacks. Egypt became the second biggest receiver of US aid in 1979 when it signed a peace treaty with Israel under former president Anwar Al-Sadat. BM
