The Egyptian military on Sunday said that commercial truck traffic with Israel had resumed via a border crossing in the Sinai Peninsula that had been shut down amid the jihadist insurgency there.
Brig. Gen. Tareq Younis said the first few trucks from Israel crossed over into Egypt on Sunday, and that Egyptian vehicles began bringing goods into Israel earlier this month.
The trade, mostly foodstuffs and raw materials, passed through the el-Auga route, south of Gazoo and closer to central Sinai.
Egypt has been battling jihadists for years, but the Sinai-based insurgency ‐ affiliated with the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
terror group ‐ gained strength after the 2013 overthrow of elected but divisive
...politicians call things
divisivewhen when the other side sez something they don't like. Their own statements are never
divisive,they're
principled...
Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Thousands of Egyptian security forces and civilians have been killed, and thousands more placed in durance vile
You have the right to remain silent...
in what critics describe as a heavy-handed security crackdown. Homes have been destroyed, and heavy restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods.
Israel has assisted Egypt throughout its fight with the IS jihadists, and their predecessors. According to foreign media reports, this has included conducting dronezaps in the peninsula on Islamic State targets. It has also reportedly taken the form of significant intelligence sharing.
More publicly, since 2013, Israel has also allowed additional Egyptian forces into the peninsula, beyond the level permitted under the 1979 peace accord between the two countries. Heavy weapons, like tanks, artillery and attack helicopters, have been brought into Sinai to fight the Islamists, a sign that Jerusalem is not concerned those big Egyptian guns could be turned against it.
Earlier this year, The New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported that Israel was covertly carrying out a full-blown aerial campaign against IS targets in Sinai, with the blessing of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. The Israeli aircraft are reportedly often unmarked and sometimes use indirect routes in a bid to cover up the origin of the strikes.
In February, the Egyptian military launched a massive operation in Sinai as part of its efforts to oust the jihadist group from the peninsula.