Israel says more than 100 drones from Egypt have entered country
Israeli media has reported that over 100 drones have entered Israel from Egypt during the last month, with some containing weaponry, according to the Middle East Monitor on September 19th.
Bhol, an Israeli news website, claimed that the drones were used for a variety of reasons, ranging from surveillance and smuggling to arms transportation. This raised alarm in Israel that the drones could be deployed in future offensive operations.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have publicly articulated how logistically challenging intercepting the drones has proven to be. However, efforts are allegedly underway to bolster intelligence and detection capabilities while new countermeasures are being devised.
Israeli public broadcaster Kan 11 reported that the Border Guard and the IDF both failed to intercept the majority of drone smuggling attempts from Egyptian territory.
An Israeli Border Guard officer deployed on the Egyptian frontier told Kan 11 that “there is a lot of work here – reconnaissance, patrols, intelligence, and special forces – but much of it goes to waste.” The officer also said: “Even if we identify a vehicle coming from the Egyptian side, by the time our forces arrive, the smugglers are already gone. Only occasionally do we manage to neutralize a drone.”
The broadcaster accused the IDF and Border Guard of downplaying the amount of aircraft that have crossed the border undetected, likely in an effort to conceal defensive blind spots from the public.
This is not the first time Israel has sought to minimise the extent of its surge in tensions with Egypt. After Cairo deployed 40,000 military personnel to the Gaza border to deter an Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign, the Israeli military told Kan 11 that the heightened military activity was “in coordination with the IDF and the political echelon”, according to The Times of Israel on August 26th.
Concerns of a direct military confrontation with Egypt continue to reach new heights as Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, referred to Israel as “the enemy” in his address at the Arab-Islamic summit on September 15th.
The head of Egypt’s State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, stated that “the last time the word ‘enemy’ was used by Egypt’s top official, or by any state official, was before the peace treaty in 1977.”
Such stark animosity has predominantly been caused by Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into the Sinai Peninsula, a move that Egypt firmly rejects. In an exclusive interview with CNN published on August 18th, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty warned that any such efforts by Israel would cross a “red line”, and that “we will not accept it, we will not participate in it, and we will not allow it to happen.”
Middle East Monitor, Maghrebi.org, The Times of Israel, CNN
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