The latest Israeli claims of secret underground Egyptian missile storage facilities in the Sinai are merely the latest bump in an increasingly bumpy relationship between Tel Aviv and Cairo. Just days earlier, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi described Israel as an “enemy” and labelled its actions in Gaza as “genocide"—a significant escalation in their war of words.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Egypt of imprisoning the people of Gaza, then reportedly froze a multi-billion-dollar natural gas export deal with Egypt. Cairo’s plans to generate electricity for its 108 million people are now in jeopardy, as it seeks more expensive alternatives to Israeli gas.
On 15 September, Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jerusalem and asked US President Donald Trump’s top foreign affairs envoy to put pressure on Egypt, accusing it of violating the 1979 peace treaty with Israel by alleging that Egypt had built military infrastructure in the Sinai Peninsula, designated as a restricted zone by the treaty. Netanyahu claimed that Egypt had also extended airbase runways for fighter jets and built underground bunkers.
Israeli officials admit that there is no concrete evidence to back these claims, but nevertheless describe the Egyptian military build-up in Sinai as “very serious”, noting how Egypt has deployed up to 40,000 troops in North Sinai—nearly double the limits specified in the Security Annexe of the peace treaty. Egypt says these deployments are defensive, coordinated anti-terrorism measures, necessary to secure its border with Gaza.
