Egypt security officials who asked not to be named said that the victims who were killed in the air strike were militants and that the attack was carried out in coordination with Egyptian army.

Last month, Tel Aviv said it had installed rocket launchers near the Sinai Peninsula to counter possible attacks from militants fighting the Egyptian government in the Peninsula.

The Sinai Peninsula has been witnessing a surge in deadly violence since the ouster of former president, Mohamed Morsi, by the army in early June.

On August 7, unknown gunmen shot and killed an Egyptian politician identified as Abdel Hamid Selmi in Sinai’s northern town of el-Arish.

On August 5, an Egyptian soldier was killed and two others injured in two separate attacks in the restive peninsula.

Meanwhile, the state news agency, MENA, said in a report that on August 4 unknown militants carried out bomb attacks against two Islamic shrines near the North Sinai town of Bir el-Abd and the area of el-Maghara farther south.

In another incident on the same day, one police officer was injured in a militant attack on a police club in el-Arish.

In July, there were reports of attacks on military checkpoints in Sinai.

MRKD/ NJF