The Israeli military has followed up on yesterday’s reports of Egypt massing tanks along the border with the Gaza Strip, confirming the movements were done in coordination with the “most senior levels” of Israeli leadership.
The speculation so far is that Egypt’s decision to move large numbers of tanks to the Gaza border was an attempt to forestall any Hamas intervention on behalf of Egypt’s civilian government in the lead-up to a potential coup d’etat.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied that, of course, but would say that the deployments were meant to “contend with security threats in Sinai that pose a threat to both Israel and Egypt.”
Under the terms of the treaty with Israel, large Egyptian military operations in Sinai need to be coordinated with Israel. The increased Sinai deployment also comes at a time when US and other troops have been deployed in unusually large numbers along the peninsula’s border with Israel.
