According to Israeli state television, Cairo has informed Israel that it will suspend the peace agreement if Rafah is entered by land.
Egypt also warned Hamas that it must agree to a prisoner swap within two weeks or Israel will resume its ground offensive in Gaza.
According to the report, Egypt has reinforced its border defense system with fences, cameras, watchtowers and sensors.
Egypt has not yet commented on this report in the Israeli press.
The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty was signed in Washington, USA, on March 26, 1979, following the decisions taken at the Camp David Accords. The most important articles of the agreement include “the cessation of the state of war between the parties, the normalization of relations, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Sinai Peninsula and the demilitarization of the area.
Israel signals attack on Rafah city
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had signaled on February 4 that they would launch a ground attack on Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Israeli attacks have taken refuge.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on February 1, during a visit to Israeli troops in the Khan Younis area of the Gaza Strip, that they would move their ground offensive to Rafah.
The Palestinian Authority has also stated that the transfer of Israeli attacks to Rafah would mean “a new cycle of genocide” that threatens 1.5 million Palestinians.
Rafah, on the border with Egypt, is home to nearly half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israeli attacks taking refuge in the city.
Israeli forces frequently target Rafah city with airstrikes. There is concern that if Israel launches a ground offensive on Rafah, civilians will have no shelter in the Gaza Strip.
Since October 7, 28,64 Palestinians, including at least 12,000 children and 8,190 women, have been killed and 67,611 people have been injured in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.
While thousands of dead are still reported under the rubble, civilian infrastructure is also being destroyed by targeting hospitals and educational institutions where people seek refuge.
