Twenty people are reported to have been killed.

 

The strikes came after security checkpoints were allegedly attacked by gunmen in the town of al-Arish, leaving a number of people injured.

 

On Sunday, militants killed 16 Egyptian border guards in the area.

 

After that attack, Israeli forces said they killed some of the militants who broke through into Israel.

 

Patrols have been stepped up in Northern Sinai, and Egypt's Rafah border crossing to Gaza has been indefinitely closed as security forces hunt the remaining attackers. Egypt is also reported to have begun sealing off the illicit²（违法的） smuggling³ tunnels into Gaza.

 

Operations 'ongoing⁴'

 

This is the first time Egypt has fired missiles in Sinai since the 1973 war with Israel, when it attempted to recapture the Sinai peninsula, security officials told Associated Press.

 

A Sinai army commander told Reuters news agency the army had received information that there were many militants in Touma village.

 

"We have succeeded in entering al-Touma village, killed 20 terrorists and destroyed three armoured cars belonging to terrorists. Operations are still ongoing," he told Reuters.

 

The Egyptian military also carried out helicopter attacks around an area called Sheikh Zuwaid just east of al-Arish, security officials said.

 

The attack came hours after three security checkpoints were attacked in al-Arish, near the Israeli border.

 

At least four people - including police officers and a civilian⁵ - were wounded in those attacks.

 

The Egyptian soldiers killed in Sunday's attack were buried on Tuesday in a funeral marked by angry calls for vengeance⁶. 

 

Some protesters chanted slogans against the Muslim Brotherhood⁷, and according to witnesses, tried to assault the Islamist Prime Minister Hisham Qandil.

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