Egypt steps up border security ahead of looming Israeli ground offensive on Gaza’s Rafah

The Egyptian government has this week stepped up military reinforcements in and around the once restive North Sinai province ahead of an imminent Israeli ground invasion of the Palestinian Rafah City, bordering Egypt, a threat recurrently rejected by Cairo. 

The New Arab's Arabic language sister publication, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, reported on Thursday, citing a well-informed Egyptian source as saying that "Egyptian troops have been stationed along the 14-kilometre border strip with Gaza" as part of a plan to deal with a possible Israeli ground invasion of Rafah.

"A state of readiness has been imposed since Monday following communications with the Israeli side," the unnamed source said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frequently claimed that four armed bridges linked to the Hamas faction, ruling Gaza, had been stationed in Rafah.

Gaza's southern Rafah city currently harbours over 1.5 million displaced Palestinians of a population of almost 2.2 million.

"The concerned Egyptian authorities were informed of some of the air strikes launched on the Philadelphi Corridor under the pretext that it had been used to smuggle arms via underground tunnels Hamas, [which eventually forced] Egypt to accept a looming Israeli assault on Gaza's Rafah City," the source noted.

The strategic corridor is a 14-kilometre-long and 100-metre-wide buffer zone established according to the terms of the 1978 Camp David Accords signed between Egypt and Israel.

In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had informed Egypt of its plans to control the corridor. But Egyptian State Information Service chief Diaa Rashwan—tasked with overseeing the foreign press in Egypt—refuted the allegations, saying they were baseless "lies."

However, Egyptian international law professor Ayman Salama told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that "any adjustments to the Israeli security situation on the border require Egypt's approval [first]."

"Israel will not be able to build buffer zones on the Egyptian-Israeli border or modify a security annexe of the peace treaty signed with Egypt under the pretext of [facing] direct security threats," he argued.

The Egyptian government has repeatedly warned against any Israeli ground attacks on the Palestinian Rafah City, describing the measure as "a direct threat to Egypt's national security" and warning that a possible displacement of Palestinians into North Sinai remained a red line.

Egypt has repeatedly been criticised for imposing extreme security measures on the Rafah Border Crossing, Gaza's only connection to the outside world, to prevent a possible influx of Palestinian refugees into Egypt.

Egypt's concerns over the forcible displacement of Gazans into Sinai date back to the 1950s but have increased considerably following the war on the Palestinian strip.

In February this year, North Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel-Fadeel Shousha declared that only about 10,000 Palestinians had fled the besieged enclave through the Rafah Border crossing. Most of them were either critically injured, seeking treatment in Egypt, dual nationals, stranded Egyptians, or Palestinians leaving for other countries via Egypt.

Meanwhile, a high-level Egyptian security source told TNA, on condition of anonymity, that "Cairo and Tel Aviv have already been at loggerheads over the escalating situation in Gaza and the expected ground offensive of Rafah."

"No concrete results have yet been throughout talks conducted between intelligence officials for both sides have shown no resilience to change their stances," added the source, who declined to be named for not being authorised to talk to the media.

Observers believe that the current situation has further embarrassed the regime amid the ongoing negotiations, where Egypt is a crucial mediator between the two warring sides. The regime is already facing economic challenges domestically, especially after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was sworn in for a third term earlier this month.

The Israeli brutal war on Gaza has claimed the lives of nearly 33.000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, as the distressed citizens in the besieged enclave are on the verge of famine.  

Egypt and Israel have imposed a strict blockade on Gaza since 2007 after Hamas assumed power following clashes with the rival Fatah faction that rules the occupied West Bank.

It was nearly a decade later, when Hamas dropped its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed group in Egypt since 2014, that the Egyptian regime softened its stance towards the Palestinian faction.