Exactly a month ago, on February 5, we reported here on the twelfth time the gas pipeline bringing gas from Egypt to Israel was sabotaged. Make that thirteen.
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| Our report from exactly a month ago |
Reuters reported 30 minutes ago that the pipeline was bombed earlier today, the thirteenth such attack since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011.
"The attack on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile Sinai region occurred in the Massaeed area west of the Mediterranean coastal town of al-Arish, in north Sinai. Witnesses in al-Arish told Reuters that they could see flames from their town when the attack took place. Security in Sinai was relaxed after Mubarak's fall as the police presence thinned out across Egypt. Egypt's 20-year gas deal with Israel, signed in the Mubarak era, is unpopular with some Egyptians, with critics accusing Israel of not paying enough for the fuel. Previous explosions have sometimes led to weeks-long shutdowns along the pipeline run by Gasco, a subsidiary of the national gas company EGAS. Gasco said that it resumed pumping gas to households and Industrial factories in al-Arish and began experimental pumping to Jordan and Israel last week."
As we noted last month,
"it looks more and more like a metaphor for relations between the two countries. Terrorists are blamed again, but it's clear that Egypt either won't or can't prevent this kind of thing from happening which means changes are inevitably on the way."
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