Probably less than one in a thousand Americans are even aware that there is an ISIS affiliate in Egypt.
Even fewer know any of the details behind this insurgency because outside of one incident, the American news media has ignored it. Which is why it is interesting.
During my time on this Earth I've learned that the things the news media ignores are the most significant.

That one incident you will likely remember - Metrojet Flight 9268.
On 31 October 2015, all 224 died from a bomb planted on an Airbus on en route to Saint Petersburg, Russia. Previously ignored Ansar Bait al-Maqdis claimed responsibility.
After that the news media completely lost interest. Does that mean the attack was a one-off by some fringe group that "got lucky"?
Nope.

Consider this attack just a few months earlier.


That's an Egyptian naval frigate getting blown up by a missile. This is not the work of amateurs.

Another example is buried in this article about 32 Egyptian soldiers getting ambushed and killed in a single day, early in 2015.

The insurgency has not spread to the tourist hubs of south Sinai, but in pockets of north-east Sinai the army has been powerless to stop militants from frequently establishing their own checkpoints, through which the jihadis have kidnapped and assassinated policemen.

The Sinai insurgency is so popular and wide-spread that the Egyptian army has lost control over the region.
A few month ago the American military had to redeploy 100 soldiers to southern Sinai because “The Pentagon has valid concerns about troop safety.”

This sounds like a big deal. So why is the news media ignoring it?
The answer to that question is revealed in a couple maps.

This is the area of ISIS activity in Sinai according to this web site.
Notice the proximity to the Gaza Strip.

This is a map of where the Egyptian government is destroying the homes of thousands of families.
Notice the overlap?

Egypt has demolished more than 3,255 homes and other buildings in the Sinai peninsula in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch says.
Troops began razing homes along the Gaza border in 2013 to create a "buffer zone" and eliminate smuggling tunnels, after a surge in attacks by militants.
But those evicted are given little or no warning, no temporary housing and inadequate compensation, HRW alleges.
The Egyptian government insisted that residents supported the demolitions.

Obviously the residents feel otherwise about their homes being destroyed.

More than 3,600 civilians, security personnel and militants have been killed in the ensuing violence - more than two-thirds of them since the government announced plans for the buffer zone in October 2014 - HRW cited media reports and official statements as saying.

Egypt's counterterrorism tactics in North Sinai amount to a scorched earth policy.
Amnesty International has also condemned the destruction.

The military aims to eventually clear an area of about 79 sq km (30 sq miles) along the Gaza border, including all of the town of Rafah, which has a population of about 78,000 people, HRW says.
The government says the operation will allow the military to close smuggling tunnels it alleges are used by jihadists to receive weapons, fighters and logistical help from Palestinian militants in Gaza.
But HRW said little or no evidence had been offered to support this justification, citing statements from Egyptian and Israeli officials that suggested weapons were more likely to have been obtained from Libya or captured from the Egyptian military.
HRW also said the authorities had provided residents with little or no warning of the evictions, no temporary housing, mostly inadequate compensation for their destroyed homes - none at all for their farmland - and no effective way to challenge official decisions.
It concluded that such actions violated protections for forcibly evicted residents laid out in UN and African conventions to which Egypt is a party, and might also have violated the laws of war.
"Destroying homes, neighbourhoods, and livelihoods is a textbook example of how to lose a counterinsurgency campaign," said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East and North Africa director.

The town of Rafah existed for around 3,300 years. It survived the invading armies of Assyria, Greece, and Rome, among others. It has outlasted Napoleon’s armies, the British, and the Ottoman Empire, just to name a few.
People lived in Rafah when Moses led his people out of Egypt.
Last year Rafah ceased to exist.