Operation Eagle is an ongoing Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian military campaign launched in August 2011 in the Sinai Peninsula

Sinai Peninsula

The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...

. Its objectives are to confront Islamist insurgents

Islamism

Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...

 and criminal gangs threatening Egypt's national security and to restore law and order.

Background

Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 returned the Sinai Peninsula, which it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...

, to Egypt in 1982 as part of the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. Among the treaty's other provisions was an agreement that the peninsula would be left effectively demilitarized.

The security situation in the Sinai began deteriorating early in 2011, as a fallout of the 2011 Egyptian revolution

2011 Egyptian revolution

The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...

. Since February of that year, the Egypt–Israel pipeline in El-Arish was attacked five times by saboteurs. On 30 July, militants staged an attack on an Egyptian police station in El-Arish, killing six. On 2 August, a group claiming to be the Sinai wing of Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 declared its intention to create an Islamic caliphate

Caliphate

The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

 in the Sinai.

Operation

On 14–15 August 2011, having obtained prior approval from Israel's government, Egypt deployed 2,500 troops and 250 armored personnel carriers in key locations in the Sinai. The move marked the first time Egypt has deployed military forces on such a scale since its treaty with Israel in 1979. The objectives of the operation are to confront Islamist insurgents and criminal gangs threatening Egypt's national security and to restore law and order.
On 15 August, Egyptian security forces swept through a house known to be used by five leading Islamist figures. One of the five was killed; the remaining four were taken into custody.

On 16 August, a group of gunmen believed to be affiliated with jihadist

Jihadism

Jihadism is a term to describe the renewed focus on armed jihad in radical Islamic fundamentalism....

 movements attacked an Egyptian army checkpoint. Egypt's forces suffered no casualties in the assault.

On 17 August, two Bedouin

Bedouin

The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

s were killed in southern Sinai. Their families blamed Egyptian police for their deaths, but the police said it was not involved in the incident.

On 26 August, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak

Ehud Barak

Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....

 said that Israel will agree for Egypt to employ thousands of troops in the Sinai, even though the Camp David Accords

Camp David Accords

The Camp David Accords were signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978, following thirteen days of secret negotiations at Camp David. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, and were witnessed by United States...

treaty strictly forbids it.