By Staff, Agencies Armed men blew up a gas pipeline connecting the ‘Israeli’-occupied territories to Egypt, according to media reports. According to al Jazeera news channel, local sources said the operation took place in the Sinai's Bir el-Abd region on Sunday evening.

The report did not provide any further information regarding possible motives or identities behind the incident.

Meanwhile, ‘Israeli’ follow-up reports claimed that the pipeline remained "functional" and that the incident was under investigation.

The attack came days after the Zionist entity started exporting natural gas from the "Leviathan" natural gas field off the coast of occupied Palestine into Egypt on January 15.

The new gas pipeline was described by Zionist officials to be of strategic importance for the enemy’s regime which is largely isolated in the region.

The ‘Israeli’ occupation entity had been previously importing gas from Egypt until Cairo canceled the exports in 2012 after a series of explosions targeted gas export operations to the occupied territories in the first six months of 2011