Comprehensive Operation – Sinai 2018

Security measures undertaken in Sinai by the government were reported a month prior to the operation.[2] In January, military reinforcements arrived in the city of Al-Hasana in a scale "unprecedented" since the 2013 escalation in violence, according to Mada Masr quoting local residents. The equipment involved included Humvees, tanks and armored personnel carriers. Asharq Al-Awsat, citing an unnamed security source, reported on 16 January that the deployments intensified in Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah in the past ten days, where authorities, backed by special forces, increased their gathering of intelligence through local pro-government tribal agents, UAVs and night vision devices. The Armed Forces intensified regulations on land crossings through the Suez Canal. According to Mada Masr, vehicles with license plates from North Sinai were restricted from passing through the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel, thereby limiting the entry of supplies to the region's shop owners.[3]

On February 7, two days before the announcement of Sinai 2018, Mada Masr reported that a large number of medical staff from different governorates in Egypt, mainly surgeons and anesthesiologists, were assigned by the Health Ministry to hospitals in the Ismailia Governorate and the Sinai for a period of three months at the request of the Armed Forces. Hospitals and ambulances in Arish were in a state of high alert.[4] In the early morning hours of February 9, the day COS 2018 was launched, security forces shut down the North Sinai Coastal Road linking all the major cities and towns in the region, which had all their entrances barred to anyone entering or leaving. All schools throughout North Sinai were cancelled as of the following day, and university semesters were postponed. Gas stations in Arish were banned from pumping fuel to civilian vehicles. All Suez Canal crossings were closed. On the border with Gaza, the recently reopened Rafah Border Crossing was closed indefinitely by the Egyptian government until further notice. Palestinians who were already present on the Egyptian side of the border were escorted back to Gaza amid scuffles with security personnel.[5][6]