Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), an Islamist militant group, carried out an attack near the Israeli-Egyptian border following the distribution of a video made by an American that vilifies Muhammad. This latest attack follows protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and an assault on an international peacekeeper base in Sinai.
During the cross-border attack, an Israeli soldier was killed by three ABM members who were themselves killed in a firefight with responding Israeli forces. According to the Washington Post, “the incident was the latest in a number of militant attacks from Sinai that have heightened concerns in Israel about what officials say is growing activity by al-Qaeda-inspired jihadist groups in the desert region since the Egyptian revolution last year.” ABM later claimed that the three militants crossed the Israeli border the day before today’s attack, when they fired on an Israeli patrol. The militants were found to have explosives attached to themselves, and one reportedly detonated himself in the attack.