Egypt boosts security at border amid Israel's plans to push ahead with Rafah offensive

Cairo [Egypt], February 16 : Amid plans by the Israeli armed forces to push ahead and intensify its ongoing military operations in southern Gaza and Rafah where thousands of Palestinians are taking refuge, Egypt began tightening security measures on its border with the Gaza Strip, CNN reported on Friday, adding that the move was aimed at preventing an influx of Palestinians onto its territory.

According to the report, the Israeli military launched a ground assault on the enclave's southernmost city, Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population is being sheltered, just steps away from the frontier.

The fortification by the border with Gaza is a 'precautionary' measure ahead of an expected Israeli ground operation in Rafah, Egyptian security officials told CNN.

Further, as part of its security buildup, the officials said Egypt has deployed more troops and machinery in North Sinai, bordering Gaza.

Also, as a precautionary measure, Egypt appeared to be building a massive, miles-wide buffer zone and wall along its border with southern Gaza, new satellite images showed.

CNN reported that the images, taken this week by Maxar Technologies, showed that a significant section of Egypt's territory between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed. At the actual border, multiple cranes can be seen laying sections of the wall.

Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that bulldozers arrived at the site on February 3, and the initial excavation of the buffer zone began on February 6. There has been a significant uptick in excavation this week, according to the report.

Checkpoints leading to the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian side have been boosted with more soldiers and the areas around the main road were being prepared for the deployment of tanks and military machinery, CNN reported citing an eyewitness.

Egyptian military helicopters were also seen flying on the Egyptian side this week, according to an eyewitness in Egypt and social media videos shot from the Gaza side of the border.

Officials in Egypt and Israel rarely criticize one another in public, but Egypt's foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday lambasted comments by far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said Cairo bears considerable responsibility for the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the abduction of more than 250 people, according to CNN.

Israel's subsequent military campaign in Gaza has led to the death of more than 28,000 in Gaza, as per the Hamas-run health ministry in the Strip.

It is "unfortunate and disgraceful" that Smotrich "continues to make irresponsible and inflammatory statements, which only reveal a hunger for killing and destruction," the Egyptian spokesperson said on X, formerly Twitter.

Egypt was the first Arab nation to recognize Israel in 1979. The two signed a landmark pact that saw Israel return the Sinai Peninsula it captured from Egypt in the 1967 war in exchange for peace. The treaty also limited the number of troops stationed on the border between Egypt and Gaza, which at the time was controlled by Israel.

The treaty turned Egypt into a pariah in the Arab world but decades later helped pave the way for other Arab nations to sign similar agreements with Israel.

Western media outlets, including the Associated Press and The New York Times, have reported that Egypt has threatened to void the peace treaty if Israeli troops invaded Rafah. Egypt's foreign minister dismissed those reports, but said in a news conference Monday that Cairo would adhere to the treaty "as long as it remains reciprocal," the state-run Ahram newspaper reported.

CNN cited an Israeli official, who acknowledged that the Egyptians have been concerned with Israel's operation, as saying they are not aware of a specific threat with regard to the treaty. "There is a collaboration between Israeli and Egyptian security forces. Always has been and always will be," the Israeli official told CNN.

Emad Gad, an advisor at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies and a former member of Egypt's parliament, said Egypt suspending the treaty was "totally unrealistic."

The move, he told CNN, would have consequences with the US, including on the significant financial and military aid Egypt receives from Washington.

"The present crisis presents potential dangers not seen in previous incidents," said Ofir Winter, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv and A lecturer at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Tel Aviv University, CNN reported.

Egypt and Israel have had rough patches since the treaty was signed, Winter told CNN, adding that this is the worst period in Israeli-Egyptian ties since decade-long ruler Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power.

Israel has been under pressure from the international community to refrain from launching a ground operation in Rafah, which has for weeks been under Israeli aerial bombardment. The city is the last major refuge for Palestinians fleeing the north and centre of Gaza.

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