On Jan. 22, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni approved an Egyptian request for up to 2,250
troops along the 14-kilometer Sinai-Gaza border. Officials said the Egyptian
proposal was discussed in a series of visits to Cairo by Israeli Defense
Ministry political-military bureau chief Amos Gilad.
Since then, officials said, Egypt has reinforced the security presence
in eastern Sinai without consulting Israel. In early 2008, officials said,
Egypt deployed up to 10,000 police and military forces in eastern Sinai amid
the Hamas destruction of the border wall with Egypt.
"For a long time, the Defense Ministry, including Gilad himself, opposed
any expansion of the Egyptian security presence, warning that this would
lead to a remilitarization of eastern Sinai," another official said. "Over
the last few weeks, Gilad and his boss [Barak] have changed their minds."
As a result, officials said, the size of the Egyptian troop presence
along the Sinai-Gaza border remains unclear. They said Egypt has been
deploying between 900 and 1,200 police and Border Guards in the divided city
of Rafah. The Border Guards, banned by the peace treaty, arrived in Rafah in
late 2008 amid the Hamas-Israel war, officials said.
Under the latest Egyptian request approved by Israel, Cairo would
replace many of the police officers with paramilitary forces. The agreement
also called for Egypt to maintain 2,250 troops in eastern Sinai, which would
enable the rotation of border troops every three months.
The new Egyptian troops would be equipped with heavy weapons, night
vision, armored combat vehicles and helicopters, officials said. They said
some of the troops would be trained to detect weapons smuggling and
Palestinian tunnels.
Egypt has received equipment and limited training from the U.S. military
on detection of the estimated 800 Palestinian tunnels that span Rafah.
Officials said the U.S. effort has not resulted in a significant reduction
of the arms flow to the Hamas regime.
"The battle for Israel's security is not over," Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant,
chief of the military's Southern Command, said.
Israel and the United States have signed a memorandum of understanding
to stop the arms flow to the Gaza Strip. Officials said Barak plans to fly
to Washington on Jan. 27 to discuss the implementation of the MoU. Barak was
said to have scheduled a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
