Hamas is linked to Türkiye and Qatar primarily, the Muslim Brotherhood. For the same reason Mohamed Morsi was ousted July 2013 in a bloody coup. The Gulf states too have a major issue with the MB and banned the organization.

The Sinai Islamist Insurgency | OWP |

The trigger for the current landscape of the Sinai Peninsula can be handed to the 2011 Arab Spring uprising leading to the collapse of both the Mubarak regime in Egypt and the Gaddafi regime in Libya. These altered environments led Islamic extremists from the Gaza strip and the wider region to flock to the Sinai as well as allowing for huge quantities of weapons to be smuggled into the area. This coupled with the temporary withdrawal of police and military from the Sinai due to the uprising has led to the insurgency that we see today.

In July 2013, the insurgency further deteriorated. With the increased protests against the Muslim Brotherhood, the military was pushed to oust Mubarak's successor, the democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi. Morsi had promised to end discrimination against the Sinai Bedouin tribes and address their concerns. However, with his ousting followed a year-long interim until former Defence Minister Abdel Fatah al-Sisi was elected President in May 2014 with the promise of continued crackdowns against the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.

• An act of terror brought down the Russian A321 airliner in Egypt, killing all 224 people on board | BBC News - 17 Nov 2015 |

The challenges of Islamic extremism are far from over, November 2014, Wilayat Sinai (previously referred to as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis) declared its allegiance to the Islamic State. This group then became the biggest and most organised militant group in the region. This altered the campaign of terrorism, which moved away from soft targets e.g. hotels and restaurants, and instead focused the insurgency on structured low-to-mid level hard targets e.g. military camps and churches. As can be seen in the case of the Al-Rawda Mosque where the use of bombs along with militants who were equipped with small arms stormed the mosque, killing 312 and injuring 122.

Furthermore, the group utilizes IS tactics such as beheading suspected informants as a way of emphasizing propaganda and demonstrative terror. However, over the years such tactics are proving to alienate the local Bedouin tribes.

Terror in the Sinai

• Hamas and Israel Agree to a Ceasefire Brokered by Egypt's Morsi | @BooMan - 21 Nov 2012 |
• Quite Depressing Really, Obama and the ISIS Crisis | @BooMan -  Aug 26, 2014 |

  Many, many of my diaries in the past three years made the distinction between Shia, Sunni, Alawite, Sufi. Salafist and Wahhabist. My assertion was that the Obama administration held insufficient knowledge of the Muslim power bases in the Middle East. Secretary Clinton was a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and used this leverage to set US foreign policy goals. Friendly with Qatar, Al Jazeera, Erdogan's Turkey and President Morsi of Egypt. She should have critisized the MB regime of Morsi when he played religious politics, see Brotherhood's enforcer: Khairat El-Shater.

'Sapere aude'