Satellite view of the Egypt's Sinai region, bordering on Israel in the Northeast. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers say it is only a “matter of time” before Islamic State-affiliated jihadist groups attack Israeli towns along the Egyptian border.

According to Lt. Col. Gilad Avralinzi, an engineering officer with the IDF’s 80th division, the IDF Engineering Corps has spent the past year preparing the Sinai Peninsula border fence in anticipation of hostile actions from jihadist groups in the region, Israel Radio reported.

Avralinzi said the IDF will bolster the border fence during the next year with sophisticated electronics and surveillance equipment, including cameras, optics, and radars.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has waged a massive campaign to destroy Sinai-based terror groups such as the Islamic State-affiliated Wilayat Sinai (Province of Sinai), which was formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis. Wilayat Sinai was behind a recent series of attacks that killed 30 Egyptian security personnel. This week, the group released a video showing the decapitation of 10 men whom it accused of spying for Israel and Egypt.