When officials in the Israeli government said its ongoing war in the Gaza Strip was no longer about military goals but was about “pressuring Egypt” for better terms in its ongoing attempt to broker a ceasefire, it is unlikely the pressure was meant to be this direct.
With ongoing eyewitness reports of Israeli warplanes flying low over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, Egyptian security sources are now reporting that shrapnel from Israeli attacks along the Gaza border have injured two children, age two and five, and two police officers as well as damaging a number of homes and other buildings on the Egyptian side of the border with the Gaza Strip.
Though a 1979 peace treaty between the two allows Israeli warplanes to fly all the way up to the international border, they are not allowed to cross into Egyptian territory, which it seems they repeatedly did. Egyptian warplanes are not allowed to fly in most of the Sinai peninsula under the terms of the deal. What impact these latest attacks will have on the ongoing Cairo peace talks remains to be seen.
