North Sinai Governor Abdel-Fattah Harhour decided Wednesday to indefinitely suspend schools in Egypt's Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid cities, state TV has reported.

Harhour cited the governorate's security situation for school suspensions, starting Thursday.

The military has mounted an extensive campaign in the region to crush militant violence that has killed hundreds of police and troops over the past 16 months. Security forces have announced that they killed hundreds of militants. The violence has also led to civilian casualties.

Earlier in November, Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Egypt's deadliest militant group, swore allegiance to the jihadist Islamic State, which has seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in recent months.

In October, Egypt announced a three-month state of emergency in the governorate and a curfew from 5pm to 7am.

Authorities began demolishing houses and clearing residents along the Egyptian border with Gaza, to set up a buffer zone in order to better fight the militant insurgency following a deadly attack by militants that killed 30 soldiers on 24 October.