"[17][18] The Egyptian Armed Forces are engaged in a difficult and sustained military campaign to subdue and eliminate dangerous and violent extremists from the Northern Sinai Peninsula.

Over the last two years, extremists in the Northern Sinai region have attacked civilians and Egyptian authorities, resulting in military and police deaths, and countless other injuries.

A few days after the 2012 Egyptian-Israeli border attack, forces from Egypt’s army and the police engaged in an operation against armed men who have been targeting security personnel in North Sinai.

[22] In one attack, gunmen opened fire on three local security checkpoints, wounding at least six people, and triggering protests in the region by Egyptians, who demanded protection.

"[24] Security sources in Sheikh Zuwayed, a city in the Sinai, reported that the Egyptian army has been raiding hundreds of houses in the region in the hopes of tracing terrorists and confiscating weapons.

"[24] On 9 August, Israel's security cabinet approved a request from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to allow Egypt to deploy attack helicopters in the Sinai Peninsula for its recent operations.

The arrested were charged with attacking police officers and stations in the Sinai Peninsula, belonging to a jihadi group, and smuggling weapons to and from the Gaza Strip.

[30] Al Ahram reported that security forces have intensified their presence in a number of villages in North Sinai where wanted suspects are believed to be hiding.

[27] On the same day, a group of armed men opened fire on peacekeeping troops in the Um Shyhan area in the Sinai on the border with Israel.

[30] On 12 August, Egyptian security forces killed seven suspected militants during raids on hideouts in two villages near El-Arish of al-Ghora and al-Mahdiyah in northern Sinai.

In addition, a source close to Islamists in the Sinai said that hundreds of them had organized a secret meeting to discuss their response to the killing of five suspected terrorists by Egyptian soldiers earlier in the day, and agreed that the reaction will be harsh.

[32] On 17 August, an arrested suspect guided security forces to an apartment in Sheikh Zuwayed that was used by terrorists to hide "wireless devices and jihadist books."

[36] Israeli soldiers, who were providing security to construction crews building a fence in the Har Harif area on the border with the Egyptian Sinai, were attacked.

[44] Egyptian security forces launched Operation Sinai (Op-Sinai) to reassert effective control of the area by subduing and eliminating violent extremists.