September 5, 2012 (TSR) – Israeli Mossad agents have allegedly carried out an assassination within Egyptian territory, according to Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.
It is the first time Israeli officials have infiltrated Egyptian territory since the 1979 peace treaty between both countries, security sources highlighted.
Sinai activist Ahmed Abo Dra’a claimed that a man named Ibrahim Oweida was killed through a collaboration between Mossad and local Bedouins. He further claimed that following the assassination, jihadists identified three informants involved with the operation. “One was decapitated, one escaped with his family and the third was handed over to the family of the assassinated,” he said. “They even released a statement about it.”
The independent news agency cited unnamed officials claiming that Bereikat’s assassination was carried out by a team of four officers from the Mossad, Israel’s primary covert-action agency. The four allegedly bribed several Bedouin tribesmen who live in southern Sinai, and had them lead them to Bereikat’s whereabouts, approximately 10 miles (15 kilometers) into Egyptian territory. The report claims that the eight-member team —four Mossad operatives and four Bedouins— first tried to kill Bereikat on August 22, but failed because, ironically, their target had been picked up for questioning by Egyptian security forces. The Mossad officers thus returned late on Saturday, August 25, and planted explosives on Bereikat’s motorcycle. The explosives were allegedly detonated via a remote mechanism attached to the vehicle.
Abo Dra’a’s account matches a statement supposedly released by Ansar Bait Al Maqdis Jihadist group (Arabic for Jerusalem Supporters) which said four Mossad agents assassinated one of its members, Oweida, who had carried out operations against Israel, according to independent newspaper Al-Masreyoon. The statement reportedly added that two “spies” were “arrested”, while another managed to escape.
The report adds that the operation was supported by a number of “Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles”. Within a few days, Egyptian security forces had allegedly been able to trace the Mossad team’s tracks and reconstruct the method of the attack that killed Bereikat. Subsequent reports from Egypt claimed that one of the four Bedouins, who allegedly assisted the Mossad, was found dead and beheaded this past Saturday.
Ansar Bait Al Maqdis Jihadists is the same group which had claimed responsibility for a series of cross-border attacks in August of 2011, which killed eight Israeli citizens, and the gas pipeline attack that carries Egyptian fuel to Israel. The group called the supply of gas to Israel “treason”. Five Egyptian police officers and ten militants were also reportedly killed in the attacks, which sparked a diplomatic episode between Cairo and Tel Aviv.
The intelligence report suggested Israel might have started an assassination campaign targeting armed Salafis in Sinai.
The Mossad, or “the Institute”, is the national intelligence agency of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister of Israel.
