The document summarizes security threats from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, including terrorism, smuggling of weapons, drugs and humans, and the role of Bedouin tribes. Terrorism in Sinai has included bombings targeting tourists in Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab in 2004-2006, and attacks on Israel in 2011-2012. Smuggling networks move weapons, drugs, migrants and trafficked persons. Bedouin tribes are involved in criminal activities due to their marginalization, and Islamist influence is growing in response to government violence, though large-scale radicalization is unlikely. Egypt struggles to control Sinai, allowing threats to Israel and damage to Egypt's gas pipelines.

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Security Threats from the Sinai Peninsula

2. 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
About TIP 3
Introduction 4
Terrorism 5
Smuggling: Weapons, Drugs, and Human Trafficking 6
The Role of Bedouin Tribes 7
Countermeasures and Responses 7
Above: Egypt as viewed from the Israeli side of the new border fence
Cover: Courtesy of NASA
Updated 20120807

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Introduction
Although it will be known forever as the backdrop of tribal wanderings, wars, and revelations thousands of
years in the past, today Sinai is the scene of dramatic events laden with regional significance. This once
sleepy land bridge connecting North Africa to the Middle East is now buzzing with activity that demands
the attention of Israel, Egypt and all international actors interested in preserving the peace agreement
between them. Terrorism and the smuggling of guns, drugs, white slaves, refugees and job seekers
across the 61,000-square kilometer (23,500-square mile) patch of sand and mountains are straining
resources on both sides of the border.
This is in stark contrast, however, to Sinai’s history. The peninsula has served as a major thoroughfare for
traders and conquerors since ancient times, but it has rarely seen significant settlement, and in many
ways it has stood on the sidelines of history. It was controlled by the various rulers of Egypt for centuries,
until the Ottoman Empire took it over. In place of the Ottomans came the British, who held Egypt as a
colony for 70 years, until revolution ended British rule in 1952. The British-delineated border, from Rafah
in the Gaza Strip to present-day Eilat, is still recognized today.
In modern relations between Israel and Egypt, Sinai
has been both a buffer zone and an area of
contention. It was the path through which Egypt
attacked Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973, and via
which Israel attacked Egypt, in a joint operation with
Britain and France to restore international access to
the Suez Canal, in 1956. Throughout, though, it
remained remote, sparsely populated, and relatively
undeveloped.
Following decades of fighting across the sands of
Sinai, Egypt and Israel made peace in 1979 by
establishing tight limits on military activities on the
peninsula. In addition to uprooting 170 military
installations, including several early-warning and other
strategic defense installations, as well as abandoning
the Alma oil fields and some 7,000 residents who had
settled in Sinai after the 1967 war
1
, Israel agreed to a
limited number of infantrymen and weapons along its
side of the border with Sinai. Egypt, in turn, committed
to a similarly limited deployment of personnel and
weaponry in the peninsula, with fewer men and lighter
weapons in areas closer to the border with Israel.
2
This arrangement, monitored by an international
observer force, helped keep the Sinai border between
Egypt and Israel exceptionally quiet and peaceful for
nearly 30 years. But it also contributed to the current
state of affairs in which terrorists, drug smugglers,
white slavers and border infiltrators act with near
impunity.
1
Bard, Mitchell, Myths and Facts Online, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths3/MFpeace.html#22
2
Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty, March 26, 1979, http://www.mideastweb.org/egyptisraeltreaty.htm
(Map: Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

5. 5
Terrorism
Terrorism in Egypt predates the establishment of the modern republic, with numerous Islamist groups
challenging the influence of Western culture over the state’s laws and society. In facing this threat, the
Egyptian government has waged a long and often ugly battle against groups such as the Muslim
Brotherhood, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and al-Gamaa al-Islamiya. Those groups were most active in
the 1970s through the 1990s, and mainly in Egypt’s largest cities. A new pattern emerged in the 2000s,
with groups carrying out attacks against domestic targets in Sinai, and launching attacks against Israel
from the area along the border with the Jewish state.
A spate of bombings in the mid-2000s that targeted tourist sites along the Sinai’s eastern shore reflected
this dramatic change. Nearly three dozen people were killed and scores more were wounded in a
devastating attack on the Hilton hotel in Taba in October of 2004
3
, as a truck laden with explosives was
driven into the lobby and detonated. The explosion was so powerful that it destroyed 10 floors of the
hotel. At the same time, two more bombs were detonated at separate vacation spots along the beach,
some 30 miles to the south of Taba, killing two vacationing Israelis and a local Bedouin and wounding
dozens more. Egyptian police concluded that the attack had been carried out by Palestinians, working
with local Bedouin, who had meant to strike targets inside Israel but where unable to do so
4
.
The deadliest attack in Egypt’s history took place in July of 2005, at the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh
on the southern tip of the peninsula. A series of bombs exploded at popular spots throughout the town
killing 88 people, mostly Egyptians, but also foreign tourists
5
.
Another multiple-explosion attack rocked the coastal vacation resort Dahab in April of 2006. Some two
dozen people were killed when bombs exploded at several restaurants, cafes and markets. Bedouin
residents of the northern Sinai were blamed for the attack
6
.
In August of 2011, Palestinian gunmen from the Gaza Strip entered northern Sinai and carried out a
cross-border raid north of Eilat, killing eight Israelis
7
. In the first half of 2012 there have been many
incidents between armed Jihadist groups who identify with Al-Qaeida, and the Egyptian army,
8
and
numerous attempts by armed infiltrators to penetrate the border, including the June 18, 2012 attack that
killed an Israeli construction worker. That attack was claimed by “Magles Shoura al-Mujhaddin,” a Salafi
faction in Gaza.
9
Global Jihad is label for the network of terrorist groups that share Al-Qaeda’s ideology. It
was established in 1998 under the name “World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.”
10
Al-Qaeda is the dominant factor in the global Jihad’s umbrella organization.
3
Erlanger, Steven, Blasts Hit 3 Egyptian Resorts Popular With Israelis, The New York Times, October 8, 2004,
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E3DC153BF93BA35753C1A9629C8B63&pagewanted=1
4
Associated Press, ‘Sinai attackers failed to enter Israel’, Yediot Aharonot, April 2, 2005,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3066976,00.html
5
Toll climbs in Egyptian attacks, BBC News, July 23, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4709491.stm
6
Nahmias Roee, Dahab bombers were Sinai Bedouins, Yediot Aharonot, April 26, 06, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-
3244022,00.html
7
Kershner, Isabel & Kirkpatrick, David, Attacks Near Israeli Resort Heighten Tensions With Egypt and Gaza, The New York Times,
August 18, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/world/middleeast/19israel.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1329998411-
qxWyEkFJbQp0hww4rvRrwQ
8
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/sinai-attack-proves-islamist-terrorists-are-targeting-
egyptians-as-well-as-israelis-1.456174
9
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-palestinians-israel-violencebre87406b-
20120805,0,7245595.story
10
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/The_Global_Jihad_/_Al-Qaeda

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The most recent incident was the August 5, 2012 attack in which terrorists killed 16 Egyptian border
guards and used two heavily armed stolen military vehicles to crash through the border into Israel where
they were stopped and killed by Israeli forces before reaching nearby towns.
Smuggling: Weapons, Drugs, and Human Trafficking
Adding to the “wild east” flavor of Sinai is a booming business of smuggling weapons, drugs, prostitutes
and migrants across the desert border.
Weapons smuggling – primarily to Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip – was, for a long time, limited to small arms such as
Kalashnikov assault rifles. Now, however, following the
political upheaval in both Egypt and neighboring Libya, the
market has diversified. Not only have ammunition,
explosives, and automatic weapons flowed eastward across
the peninsula since late 2011, but even more strategic
weapons such as heat-seeking, shoulder-fired anti-tank and
anti-aircraft missiles
11
.
Drug smuggling has gone on for more than half a century
12
,
with marijuana, hashish, heroin and opium making their way
across the border
13
.
White slavery is another criminal pastime, in which teenage
girls and young women, primarily from eastern Europe, are
promised work in Israel as nannies or cleaners but are instead forced into prostitution. Tens of thousands
are estimated to have been smuggled across the border over the past 20 years
14
.
Another major concern for Israel has been the significant increase in recent years of African migrants
crossing the border in search of work. At first, a trickle of Sudanese refugees, among thousands who first
sought a home in Egypt, fled to Israel. The story of their successful entry into the Jewish state then
motivated masses of Eritreans and other Africans to attempt the
same path across Sinai. The pace has become dizzying: After just
over 1,000 had entered Israel in 2006, another 25,000 came over
the next four years
15
. In January of 2012 alone, more than 2,200
entered the country.
16
The wave of migrants not only threatens to overrun Israel’s prisons
(where illegal immigrants are housed while their asylum cases are
reviewed – Israel is currently constructing a purpose-built center)
and welfare services, but it invites criminal gangs in Sinai to exploit
the migrants themselves. Guides charge thousands of dollars to
lead groups of migrants across the difficult terrain, but they are
11
Fadel, Leila, Smuggled Libyan weapons flood into Egypt, The Washington Post, October 13, 2011,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/smuggled-libyan-weapons-flood-into-egypt/2011/10/12/gIQA2YQufL_story.html
12
Marx, Emanuel, Hashish Smuggling by Bedouin in South Sinai, Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies,
Studies in Organized Crime Volume 7, 2008, pp 29-37http://rd.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-74733-0_3#
13
Illicit drugs, CIA, The World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2086.html
14
Fast Facts about Prostitution in Israel, Atzum, http://atzum.org/projects/task-force-on-human-trafficking/project-119/fast-facts-
about-prostitution-in-israel/
15
Natan Gilad, Knesset, Crime Statistics of Illegal Immigrants, October 11, 2010,
http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m02625.pdf
16
Lappin, Yaakov, 2,295 illegal African migrants enter Israel in January, The Jerusalem Post, January 2, 2012,
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=256005
Chidren of migrant workers attending
Rogozin Bialik school in Tel Aviv (David
Katz/The Israel Project)
Minimal or no fencing made smuggling
easier in the past. (Yonatan Ilan)

7. 7
often overrun by – or complicit with – gangs who torture, kidnap, and extort the migrants
17
for tens of
thousands of dollars more, in ransom payments
18
. These gangs have even engaged in organ trafficking,
forcibly removing the organs of victims who refuse to give in to their demands
19
. Rival tribes have fought
each other for control of the lucrative industry
20
.
The Role of Bedouin Tribes
The Bedouin tribesmen who make up some 70 percent of the Sinai population play a central role in all
these cases. The reasons for their criminality are plenty. As cultural, ethnic and geographic outsiders, the
Bedouin have been neglected by Cairo for decades, and so see their lawlessness as a form of revenge.
Also marginalized economically, with little beyond farming and tourism to sustain them, crime becomes a
lucrative alternative
21
. Islamist forces are making inroads as a response to the violence of government
security forces, although this influence is tempered by various cultural nuances and economic factors that
make a large-scale turn to Islamism unlikely
22
.
Egypt has struggled to impose law and order in the border region, despite reinforcing its security
presence there (and often rounding up thousands of Bedouin at a time, as it did after the resort town
bombings of the mid-2000s). Cairo’s inability to effectively control Sinai has allowed Gazan terrorist
groups to set up new infrastructure in northern Sinai
23
, and it has allowed the country’s vital natural gas
pipeline to Israel to be damaged by saboteurs – on no fewer than 10 occasions in 2011 alone
24
. Even
though the supply contract was cancelled in April, 2012, terrorists again blew it up on July 22, 2012.
Countermeasures and Responses
Aside from the motivations of local Bedouin to take
part in the attacks, smuggling and infiltrations, the
difficult terrain along the border area is a significant
factor in making them possible. Sandy expanses,
rocky ravines, and mountains make tracking and
patrolling the border a tricky task. Even more
significant, is the lack of a formidable physical
barrier to separate Egypt and Israel, as well as the
minimal number of military and law-enforcement
personnel on both sides of the border that was
mandated by the Camp David peace accords.
Until recently, the fence was, for long stretches of
the border, only a momentary impediment on the
way from Sinai into Israel’s Negev desert. Short,
17
Greenwood, Phoebe, Egyptian authorities look the other way as Bedouin kidnap refugees, The Guardian, February 15, 2012
http://www.phr.org.il/default.asp?PageID=184&ItemID=1244
18
Makar, Amir, Eritrean dissident in Cairo slams human trafficking through Sinai, The Daily News Egypt, November 3, 2011,
http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/human-a-civil-rights/eritrean-dissident-in-cairo-slams-human-tIrafficking-through-sinai-dp1.html
19
Pleitgen, Fred & Fadel Fahmy, Mohamed, Refugees face organ theft in the Sinai, CNN, November 3, 2011,
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/03/world/meast/pleitgen-sinai-organ-smugglers/index.html
20
Khaled, Osama & ElBoluk, Salah, Human organ trafficking war waged between Sinai Bedouins, Egypt Independent, November
14, 2011, http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/514726
21
Amr Yossef, Securing the Sinai, Foreign Affairs, September 28, 2011, http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/68304/amr-
yossef/securing-the-sinai
Al-Desoukie, Omnia, North Sinai voters wary of Islamist dominance, The Daily News Egypt, January 4, 2012,
http://thedailynewsegypt.com/egypt-elections-2011/north-sinai-voters-wary-of-islamist-dominance.html
23
Yaari, Ehud, Sinai: A New Front, Policy Notes, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, January 2012,
http://washingtoninstitute.org/pubPDFs/PolicyNote09.pdf
24
Ya’ar, Chana, Sinai Terrorists Bomb Gas Pipeline a 10th Time, December 18, 2011
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/150817#.T0lOQPEgef8
Typical Sinai terrain. (Mark A. Wilson)

8. 8
flimsy, and often bent or in a state of disrepair, the chain-link and barbed wire barrier was not up to the
task of preventing infiltrations. Israeli military patrols are carried out regularly, with veteran trackers –
many of them Bedouin Israeli-Arabs – searching the fence area for signs of infiltration, but the poor state
of the border road and other factors made chasing smugglers and other border crossers a difficult
proposition. Egyptian security personnel, meanwhile, maintain a more passive stance – keeping their
distance from the border fence, in part, to prevent possible confrontations with Israeli soldiers.
Israel has been spurred to action by the
combined threats of the terrorist attacks of the
mid-2000s – and especially the prospect of
Palestinian terror groups using the relatively
lawless northern Sinai as a nearly-untouchable
base of operations, following Israel’s withdrawal
from Gaza – and the advancing pace of African
job seekers flowing across the border. Major
upgrades to the border fence and its
accompanying infrastructure are under way: a
taller, more robust fence, electronic surveillance
systems, armored personnel carriers for security
patrols and more are being installed, with plans
for completing the project by the end of 2012
25
.
Egypt has also responded to the increased
threats, sending more troops and heavier weapons into the northern Sinai; this was made possible by and
Egyptian-Israeli agreement to temporarily amend the security provisions of the Camp David accords
26
.
Reinforcements, however, have been greeted by violent clashes with local Bedouin, with troops facing
rocket-propelled grenade attacks
27
and effectively being barred from local strongholds so impenetrable
that they are known as “the Tora Bora of the Sinai”
28
.
In short, the situation along the border continues to be tense, with both sides working to restore the calm
that once prevailed in the vast Sinai Peninsula. Quieting the region is no simple job, however, as
numerous elements demand attention of authorities in Egypt, Israel, and other foreign powers.
25
Zitun, Yoav, IDF presents new southern border defense vision, Yediot Aharonot, February 6, 2012,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4186202,00.html
26
El-Boluk, Salah, Army tanks in N. Sinai for first time since Israeli peace treaty, Egypt Independent, August 14, 2011,
http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/486279
27
Bradley, Matt, & Mitnick, Joshua, The Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2011,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704570104576124363132383924.html
28
Yaari, Ehud, Sinai: A New Front, Policy Notes, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, January 2012,
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubPDFs/PolicyNote09.pdf
An Israeli soldier deals with an explosive device planted on the
border between Israel and the Sinai Peninsula. (IDF)

9. 9
Timeline of terrorist incidents in Egypt or the Egypt-Israel border from the past decade:
August 5, 2012 – Terrorists affiliated with “Global Jihad” kill 15 Egyptian security officers and steal two
vehicles, using one to blow their way through the border. Israeli forces destroy the second vehicle inside
Israel and kill the attackers. Egyptian sources say attackers had help from Jihadists in Gaza.
August 4, 2012 – Egyptian Al Ahram newspaper report quotes governor of south Sinai, Maj. Gen. Khalid
Fouda saying Israeli warnings of pending attack are rumors and there are no terrorist cells in the Sinai.29
August 3, 2012 – U.S. State Department issues warning to American citizens to avoid travel in the Sinai
due to kidnapping threat, saying “the danger of overland travel in the Sinai is significant.”
August 2, 2012 – Israeli government issues travel warning telling all Israelis to leave the Sinai, saying
“terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and additional elements are actively planning to perpetrate
terrorist attacks, especially abductions, against Israeli tourists in Sinai in the immediate term.”
July 25, 2012 – Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya meets in Cairo with Egyptian President Morsi, who
promised to ease Egypt-Gaza border crossings where Israel knows illegal weapons are smuggled to Gaza.
June 18, 2012 – Terrorist cell attacks Israeli construction crew on Sinai border, killing one civilian.
Responsibility for attack claimed by the radical jihadist militant group “Magles Shoura al-Mujhaddin.”
June 15, 2012 – Two Grad rockets explode in southern Israel near Ovda and Ramon Crater, no damage.
April 5, 2012 – Three rockets fired from Sinai explode in Eilat, no damage.
April 1, 2012 – IDF troops kill armed infiltrator at border fence. Three IEDs on border fence diffused in
the week before the attack.
March 15, 2012 – Armed Bedouin end their week-long siege of the international peacekeeping force’s
North Camp at al-Jora in the Sinai. They were pressing for the release of arrested fellow tribesmen.
March 15, 2012 – IDF troops intercept armed infiltrators on border. Three captured after shots fired
from Egypt.
February 28, 2012 – IDF troops exchange fire with armed infiltrators on Sinai-Israel border. One
attacker killed in area where a week earlier another IED was diffused on border fence.
August 18, 2011 –Terrorists cross border and attack bus, car and soldiers. Eight killed, 40 wounded.
2011-2012 – After 13 separate attacks that repeatedly blow up sections of the Egyptian natural gas
pipeline that supplies Israel and Jordan, Egypt unilaterally cancels the 20-year supply contract.
August, 2010 – Seven rockets fired from Sinai at Eilat. Two explode in Aqaba, Jordan killing one person.
June, 2010 – IDF intercepts three armed infiltrators 40 km north of Eilat. One killed and two set IED and
escape.
April, 2010 – Rockets fired from Sinai fired at Eilat, but cause no damage or injuries.
May, 2009 – Egyptian security forces uncover massive arms cache along Israeli border including at least
266 rockets, 40 landmines, 50 mortar shells, 20 hand grenades and at least three anti-aircraft missiles.
29
http://www.ahram.org.eg/980/2012/08/04/60/163841/219.aspx

10. 10
April, 2007 – Egyptians intercept terrorist attack against Israeli tourists in Sinai just south of Gaza.
January, 2007 –Suicide bomber blows himself up in Eilat bakery, killing three Israeli civilians.
April, 2006 – Bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab kills at least 23 and wounds 80.
July, 2005 – Series of bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh kills 88 people and wounds over 150.
October, 2004 – Terrorists bomb tourist hotels in Sinai Peninsula killing 34 people and injuring 171.
January, 2003 – Terrorists infiltrate border near town of Nitzana and kill Israeli soldier.