Following several years of relative calm, the southern resort city of Eilat was one again hit by rockets. The Sinai Province, Islamic State's affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the attack, while officials in Israel pointed to its disconcerting proximity in time to the escalating tensions in the Gaza Strip, which has included rocket fire at Israel and an unusually harsh IDF response -- hitting Hamas targets in the coastal enclave. For several years now, a war of attrition and guerilla tactics has been raging in the Sinai between the forces of radical Islamic terror and the Egyptian army. At first, the independent, local organization named Ansar Beit al-Maqdis ("Champions of Jerusalem") grew from the peninsula's Bedouin tribes. In 2011, however, the group swore allegiance to al-Qaida, and three years later shifted its allegiance to Islamic State, henceforth serving as the "Sinai Province" in Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's caliphate. The group focuses the brunt of its efforts on battling the Egyptian army in Sinai, but on occasion it turns its attention, mostly for purposes of propaganda, toward Israel. After all, a radical organization such as itself cannot settle for a quiet border with Israel. Over the years, Sinai Province has customarily fired rockets at Eilat every few months, and in 2011, as part of its oath of allegiance to al-Qaida, it also carried out a devastating attack on Highway 12 along the Egyptian border, in which six Israeli civilians were killed. The Egyptian regime, fearing a spillover of terror from Sinai into Egypt proper, has invested considerable resources in efforts to eradicate the group. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has deployed over 20,000 troops to Sinai; and with Israel's consent, fighter jets and attack helicopters as well. According to Arab media reports, Israel is helping Egypt in its war on Sinai Province, which is undoubtedly motivating the terrorist group to settle new scores with the Jewish state. Sinai, however, is far from Cairo, which is why the regime's priority is to ensure stability and calm in Egypt's cities, chief among them the capital Cairo, rather than Sharm el-Sheikh or el-Arish. Unlike in the Nile Valley, support for ISIS among the local population in the Sinai Desert -- those same Bedouin tribes harboring a deep grudge against the government in Cairo -- makes eradicating the group difficult. Indeed, for every major blow it suffers, it resurrects itself to carry out more attacks. Hamas is not a political ally of Islamic State and their ideological paths are completely divergent, although far less so when it comes to Israel. The fighters and military commanders on the ground for both organizations have cooperated closely for years. The Gaza Strip has become a hiding place and training base for Islamic State operatives, and on more than one occasion the groups have coordinated and worked together to perpetrate attacks against Israel. Islamic State does not need a reason or special motive to fire rockets at Eilat. Hamas, on the other hand, has other considerations. Its leadership wants to maintain the calm along the border with Israel and advance, through Turkish sponsorship, understandings with the Israeli government toward improving the economic situation in Gaza; and even an agreement to return the bodies of Israeli soldiers and civilians being held by the group. At the same time, Hamas wants to improve its relations with Egypt, to ease the blockade on the Strip imposed by Cairo. It is uncertain, however, that the group's military leadership is in step with the aspirations and considerations of its political leadership. The rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel last week was apparently not the work of Hamas, but as the sovereign, it can do more to prevent other elements or groups operating inside Gaza from shooting at Israel. And it goes without saying, barring any clear and detailed agreement between Israel and Hamas, any incident along the border, of which there are several on a weekly basis, could spark a conflagration. Either way, last week Hamas' political leadership emerged with the upper hand and quiet was restored along the Gaza border. In Sinai, too, Islamic State was satisfied with the rocket fire at Eilat, which could be the limit of its operational capabilities. What is clear, however, is that the quiet currently holding in the south is a deceptive one.
