Jihadis claim responsibility for rocket fired at Eilat

A group calling itself the Mujahideen Shura Council claimed responsibility for firing a Grad rocket in the area of Eilat.

In a statement released in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the group said “in a swift response to the recent crime of the Jews when four of the Mujahideen were killed in Sinai after the bombing by a Jewish drone. The lions of Mujahideen Shura Council in the environs of Jerusalem bombed the occupied city of Umm Rishrash (Eilat) by one Grad missile dawn on Tuesday.”

The statement confirmed that the bombers returned safely while it declared that the mission had caused horror among “the Jews” with their officials making conflicting statements about the number of rockets that were fired on the city.

“We emphasize that neither Eilat nor other Jewish cities will enjoy security, tourism or economic activity, and they will pay the price of the blood of the Mujahideen, God willing,” the statement added.

In an earlier statement, the group announced the deaths of four of its members in an attack from an Israeli drone in Sinai on Saturday. The Egyptian military spokesperson denied however that an Israeli aircraft penetrated Egyptian airspace to deal with the jihadis.

The state-owned Egynews website said that Israeli media reported earlier that a missile fired at the city of Eilat in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The website of the newspaper Jerusalem Post reported that the Iron Dome system intercepted at least one missile, according to preliminary assessments of the Israeli army, which led to the launch of the warning alarm.

Meanwhile, Egyptian privately-owned daily Al-Shorouk quoted an Egyptian military source who said that it hasn’t been proven yet that a missile was launched from Sinai towards Eilat.

The source added that the Taba crossing was not affected by the rockets, with 2374 Israeli tourists crossing on Tuesday, most of whom are Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. He stressed that the movement of the port is normal and there is a revival of tourism in the areas of Taba and Nuweiba.

On Friday there were conflicting reports about an Israeli drone firing a missile in North Sinai. The news was denied by the Egyptian military spokesperson.

While Egypt's military presence in Sinai is limited by the terms of the 1979 Camp David peace accords with Israel, exceptional deployments of the Egyptian military have been negotiated recently in the context of the battle with militant groups operating in the area.