Israel downplays Egyptian military build-up near Gaza border
Israel has spread information suggesting that heightened Egyptian military activity in the Sinai Peninsula is in coordination with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), according to The Arab Weekly plus agencies on August 27th.
The circulated information came just hours after Cairo sent firm notifications to Tel Aviv regarding the deployment of over 40,000 Egyptian military personnel to its 12-kilometre (7.5 mile) border with the besieged and famine-stricken Gaza Strip.
The build-up includes roughly 88 battalions and 1,500 tanks and armoured vehicles. Upgrades have been also made to airbases, runways and air defence systems in close proximity to Gaza.
The military deployment was greenlit in anticipation of Israel’s desire to ethnically cleanse hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told CNN that such forcible displacement would cross a “red line”, warning that “we will not accept it, we will not participate in it, and we will not allow it to happen.”
Egyptian military experts interpreted the Israeli media claims as the deployment of a counter-narrative designed to embarrass Egypt’s leaders, such as Abdelatty, by undermining their heavy criticism of Israel.
The Israeli reports suggest that Egypt’s military build-up in North Sinai are not intended to escalate tensions, contradicting Abdelatty’s remarks that the move is to prevent the IDF from engaging in ethnic cleansing.
The IDF told the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) that “any introduction of military capabilities into Sinai is carried out in coordination with the IDF and the political echelon”, according to The Times of Israel on August 26th.
Reports further suggested that Israeli troop movements in southern Gaza constitute part of the coordination with Egypt. Experts say that Israel is deliberately issuing misleading statements to obscure the true intent behind the deployment, that being, public Egyptian opposition to Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
Kan substantiated the claims by referencing the 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, which prohibits military presence on either side of the border without mutual consent.
To bolster the claims even further, Israeli reports are recalling Egypt’s anti-terror operations between 2015 and 2020 in the Sinai, when heavy forces were deployed with Tel Aviv’s approval, implying that the recent deployment is for the same purpose.
The Arab Weekly plus agencies, Maghrebi.org, CNN, The Times of Israel
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