'ISIS branch in Egypt's Sinai planning big operation in southern Israel'
Gaza Salafi official tells Aaron Klein Investigative Radio that ISIS in Sinai "will be the pioneers" in a future confrontation with Israel.
By JPOST.COM STAFFIslamic State-affiliated Sinai Province fighters in the Sinai Peninsula(photo credit: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/ARAB MEDIA)
The ISIS affiliate in Egypt's Sinai peninsula plans to carry out a "big operation" in southern Israel, which will include an attack on the resort city of Eilat, a militant close to the group warned.In an interview set to air Sunday on Aaron Klein Investigative Radio, a weekend radio show broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia, Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, a Salafist movement senior official in the Gaza Strip, said that Israel and the US are among Islamic State's chief targets."The Islamic State educates its people that Israel and the United States are the leaders of the infidels and we believe that Israel should be disappeared," Ansari told Klein.He said that Wilayat Sinai, the Egyptian branch of the Islamic State, "will be the pioneers in this confrontation with Israel."Ansari vowed that "it is only a question of time when there will be a big operation in Eilat and in the south of Israel."Col. Yehuda Cohen, the commander of the IDF’s Sagi Brigade operating on the border with Egypt, acknowledged in September that it is only a matter of time before Islamic State in Egypt attempts to carry out a terrorist attack against Israel.“In the end it must be remembered this organization was formed by terrorists that dream of a terror attack against Israel, and it will come. It’s clear that there will be a terror attack against Israel, I believe that it will happen during my tenure,” he warned in an interview with Army Radio.He said that his forces prepare with the expectation that such an attack could come at any moment.“I teach my people to expect it to come tomorrow, to always be ready for it. When it happens, my doctrine is that we must strike a very strong blow at the same point and ensure that there are zero successful actions for the enemy,” he said.