ISLAMABAD – Israel has reportedly been conducting a years-long campaign ofairstrikes in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula with Cairo’s blessing.

Using unmarked warplanes and drones and unconventional flight routes, TelAviv has been staging airstrikes against targets in the peninsula at leastsince 2014, The New York Times said on Saturday. It named former andcurrent British and American officials involved in Middle East policy asits sources.

So far Israel has carried out more than 100 such attacks, the report said.

Apart from Jordan, Egypt is the only Arab country, which is in a peaceagreement with Israel. Cairo and Tel Aviv have also close intelligencecooperation.

The NY Times alleged that attacks were aimed at Takfiri militant targets.While militancy has taken a considerable toll on security forces andcivilians in Sinai, the militants have never been known to use Egypt as abase for attacks on Israeli targets.Mohamed Abdel Fattah (R), the imam of al-Rawda mosque, which was attackedby militants near the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish, receivestreatment at al-Husseiniya hospital in Egypt’s northern province ofal-Sharqiya, November 25, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The airstrikes are being conducted with Egyptian President Abdel Fattahel-Sisi’s approval, The Times added. The report said Sisi had kept thestrikes secret, only letting a small group of military and intelligenceofficials in on the cooperation.

Cover-up?

It said the president had also kept northern Sinai a closed military area,barring reporters from the region.

The Associated Press, meanwhile, reported that the Egyptian Army wasbulldozing homes and olive groves to build “a buffer zone” around NorthSinai Province’s only airport in the city of el-Arish.

The report said the buffer zone will destroy dozens of hamlets around theairport, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes for an unknownfuture, sparking some protest by residents despite the government promisesof compensation.

Ashraf el-Hefny, a 51-year-old teacher and local community organizer, saidhundreds of families are leaving their homes to an unknown future location.

“The bulldozers have already started to raze the olive groves, rooting outevery green leaf in the area,” he said.

Another resident, Ayman el-Rotil, 48, said that “many” homes had beendemolished quickly after bulldozers showed up, giving people barely enoughtime to gather their belongings.

Heavy-handed government policies ranging from displacements toshoot-to-kill orders have not contained the insurgency, but have sometimesmade residents prey to recruitment by the militants.