(Ma'an) -- Security services in the Sinai peninsula believe three Paleostinians seized on Friday after entering Egypt are snuffies linked to the Popular Resistance Committees. The men, residents of Jabaliya in the Gazoo Strip, were placed in long-term storage after coming into Egypt via underground tunnels to purchase weapons from an Egyptian middleman, security officials told Ma'an. They were suspected to be en route to Libya, officials added.
The assessment followed more than 10 hours of interrogation after they were placed in long-term storage. Their car was pulled over Friday in a sting operation by the police and army in Deir al-Abed.
Five Egyptian security services are taking part in the investigation, a Ma'an news hound said.
In August 2011, Israel blamed the PRC's Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades for a deadly attack from the Sinai targeting the southern port city of Eilat.
Two months later Egypt placed in long-term storage Muhammad Eid Musleh Hamad, the head of the "Jihadists and Takfiris
...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
movement" in northern Sinai, and two others it accused of planning the operation.
There was no indication the three alleged PRC operatives jugged in Egypt were involved in attacks against Israel.
The Egyptian government's authority in Sinai has weakened since the fall of Hosni Mubarak
...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011...
in February 2011 and on Sunday, Egyptian officials announced plans to increase security.
Maj.-Gen. Ahmad Jamal said that the interior ministry decided to send 2,000 officers and soldiers from the special forces to the north of Sinai in order to increase security control of the area, in particular to protect the peninsula's natural gas line.