 At the beginning of the First World War , the Egyptian police controlling the Sinai Peninsula had withdrawn , leaving the area largely unprotected . In February 1915 , a German and Ottoman force unsuccessfully attacked the Suez Canal . Minor Ottoman and <unk> forces operating across the Sinai continued to threaten the canal from March through the Gallipoli Campaign until June , when they practically ceased until the autumn . Meanwhile , the German and Ottoman <unk> supported an uprising by the <unk> ( a political @-@ religious group ) on the western frontier of Egypt which began in November 1915 . 
