A mysterious aircraft eliminated a terrorist squad that included five Islamic State (IS) fighters just as they prepared to fire rockets from the Sinai Peninsula at Israel's southernmost city, Eilat, Feb. 19. The Sinai affiliate of IS later issued a statement placing responsibility for the action against the squad squarely on Israel.

While Israel has a long-established policy of ignoring questions about such incidents, in this case Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman announced, “Like always, the special forces of Lichtenstein probably took out a few terrorists from Daesh [IS] in Sinai. … We do not let anything go without a response. I don’t think that the Islamic State in the Sinai Peninsula poses a serious threat.”

That Liberman did not avoid indicating or deny that Israel is conducting military operations in Sinai, while the Egyptians had no comment whatsoever on the incident, is an example of the strong security cooperation between the two countries.

After nearly nine months as defense minister, Liberman granted Al-Monitor an exclusive, face-to-face interview Feb. 21. The text follows: