CAIRO: Diplomatic sources in Cairo have rejected Israeli accusations that Egypt was failing to do enough to halt weapons-smuggling to Palestinians factions across the Rafah border.
But Egyptian officials insist they have stepped up raids on smuggling operations along the Philadelphi corridor, an 11 km stretch that is only 100 m wide. The Israeli allegations that Egypt is responsible for smuggling weapons to the Palestinians through the Egyptian border in the Sinai are not serious, a senior foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity. If such claims were true, then Israel would have conveyed them to Egypt through diplomatic channels, he told AFP.
Former Deputy of Egyptian State Security General Foad Allam earlier told The Daily Star Egypt he believed Israeli statements on the Rafah border area were part of a concerted Israeli effort to create the impression that Egypt is unstable.
“Israel has been doing this for two years now, using the media and releasing statements to this effect, Allam said, “they want to make Egypt look unsafe and create a negative impression of the security of the country, especially to the US.
Allam added that another reason for this whole Israeli-led media campaign was to pit Egyptian security services against Palestinians. He told The Daily Star Egypt “[Israelis] are trying to induce a high level of alertness in Egyptian security services against the Palestinians for their own ends.
Egyptian security forces in the Sinai have already been on heightened alert since October when several tunnels and arms caches were discovered. During that month, Israeli media reported that Israeli forces held off launching a major operation to seek and destroy tunnels used for arms and drugs smuggling along the Philadelphi Corridor.
In early December, a tunnel underneath a kitchen reportedly used by smugglers in Rafah, along the border with Gaza, was discovered.
But according to former Ambassador to Israel Mohammed Bassiouny, Egypt is also concerned about arms making their way back into Sinai, which has seen bombing attacks at tourist hotspots in the past two years killing more than 100 people.
The tunnels can be used both ways, he said, We don’t want weapons, drugs or people being smuggled into Egypt. [Therefore] we are opposed to the tunnels and we destroy them.
Bassiouny earlier told The Daily Star Egypt that Israel “might be forced to re-engage in the area if it believed Hamas was still effectively using the tunnels to smuggle weapons into Gaza.
Dr Mohammed Kadry Saeed, military expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, earlier said the increased presence of Egyptian police being moved into the area were part of efforts by the government to secure the region and prevent further acts of violence in the Sinai Peninsula.
“The current Egyptian redeployment is an effort to secure the tunnels . and prove to Israel that the smuggling going on in the border tunnels is not occurring with its tacit approval, Saeed told The Daily Star Egypt.
In November, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s minister for strategic threats said Israel’s security depends in part on “taking back control of the Gaza-Egypt border to stop weapons smuggling.
Lieberman, considered a hardliner among Israeli politicians, said Egypt had not been doing enough to prevent arms smuggling to Palestinian factions, reportedly through a series of tunnels.
In early December, the Israeli government issued a warning to its citizens vacationing in Sinai that they could be targeted by a Palestinian armed group, but an Egyptian security adviser disputed the authenticity of security tip which promoted the Jewish State’s alert.
The Israeli government, meanwhile, says that the advisories are simply a reminder – and not considered a new warning – for travelers heading into Sinai.
This is a very old warning, says Amira Rona, a spokeswoman with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who notes that the Israeli government has issued similar travel advisories regarding travel to Sinai for the past few years.
We know that Sinai isn t a very safe place for Israelis, she told The Daily Star Egypt in an earlier interview.
