A woman and a child died Friday in a car bombing in the northern Sinai city of Rafah, the Egyptian army said.

Army spokesman Mohamed Samir attributed the bombing, which injured several other people, to "jihadists", adding that the incident took place amid a major operation targeting militants in northern Sinai. No troops have been reported injured in the operation.

Samir added that the militants were purposefully targeting civilians.

A security cordon has been erected around the area of the attack so as to easily detect and arrest the perpetrators, the spokesman added.

The new operation, known as "Martyr's Right", was launched last Monday to "root out terrorist elements" in the North Sinai towns of Rafah, Al-Arish and Sheikh Zuweid, in what sources describe as the biggest operation of its kind in recent months.

Islamist militant group Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, an Egyptian Islamic State-affiliate, intensified attacks on army and police personnel after the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. The group has claimed responsibility for most terror attacks in North Sinai in recent years.

The Egyptian military began an intensive security sweep of the region in August 2012 after a militant attack killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, which was at the time the deadliest internal attack on Egyptian troops in years.

Security forces have since been struggling to crush the Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of army and police personnel, mostly in Sinai.

Last week, six peacekeepers, including four Americans, who were part of a multinational force monitoring Egypt's peace treaty with Israel were injured in two bomb attacks.