Militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on Friday fired rockets into southern Israel in an incident that caused no casualties, but appeared to be linked to fighting between Muslim insurgents and Egyptian security forces.
The Islamic State group’s Egypt affiliate, Sinai Province, said in a statement posted on Twitter by supporters that it had launched three Grad rockets toward “occupied Palestine.” Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the statement.
An Israeli military source earlier said the rockets had been fired from the Sinai, which borders Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal.
Israeli police said they had so far found remnants of two rockets in an open area. No damage or casualties were reported.
It was possible the launch was linked to the fighting in Sinai, the military source said, where militants of the Sinai Province group on Wednesday launched their biggest assault in years against Egyptian security forces.
Dozens of people have been killed in the past few days of clashes and air strikes in the desert region.
The Israeli military on Friday closed a southern highway, part of which runs along the Egyptian border, as a safety precaution.
Egyptian security sources earlier told Reuters they were investigating the reports and said there was no immediate evidence a rocket was launched from Egyptian territory.
Militants, including those from Sinai Province — formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis — have fired rockets into Israel from the Sinai on several occasions in the past.
Israel has accused Hamas, the Muslim militant group that controls Gaza, of helping the Islamic State in the Sinai, an allegation Hamas denies. An Egyptian security source said some Hamas members were involved in the Sinai battles, but that there were no wider organizational ties between the groups
Hamas, an militant group that seized power in Gaza in 2007, has faced its own threats from Salafist and Islamic State-linked militants.
On Tuesday, Islamic State militants released a video threatening to turn Gaza into another “fiefdom,” as in parts of Iraq and Syria.
It also said in the video that it planned to uproot “the state of the Jews” and secular Palestinian movement Fatah, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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