Egypt preserves peace with Israel, fortifies Sinai as Gaza terror and Arab instability fuel insecurity.
According to reporting by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, senior Egyptian sources insist Cairo has no intention of revising the historic Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty. Publicly, Egypt maintains its commitment to peace. Privately, however, it is racing to secure its borders against a deteriorating regional reality driven largely by Gaza-based terror and wider Arab instability.
Egypt’s priority, the sources stress, is not diplomacy but national security. Cairo is significantly expanding its military footprint across the Sinai Peninsula, particularly in zones adjacent to Israel. Advanced weapons systems, surveillance technologies, and air defense assets are being introduced to counter smuggling, jihadist movements, and spillover threats emanating from Gaza’s lawless environment.
Egyptian officials argue that these deployments do not violate the peace agreement. On the contrary, the treaty’s security annexes allow flexibility to adjust force levels in Sinai based on emerging threats. This reality underscores a crucial point often ignored by critics: Israel has upheld the treaty even as Egypt militarizes Sinai—because Jerusalem understands the real enemy is not Egypt, but terror networks exploiting Arab weakness and Palestinian chaos.
Cairo is also watching closely the anticipated meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump. Egyptian officials believe Washington will pressure Israel to shoulder even greater responsibility for containing Gaza-based violence—despite the fact that Israel has already paid the highest price in blood, security costs, and international condemnation.
Recent revelations further expose the double reality on the ground. Israeli security forces have uncovered extensive weapons-smuggling operations from Egyptian territory into Israel, often using drones. These are not abstract threats but tangible proof that Gaza’s terror ecosystem continues to destabilize the entire region, dragging neighboring states into reactive militarization.
Reports that Egypt has deployed a Chinese-made air defense system in Sinai—with interception capabilities reaching hundreds of kilometers—only reinforce how severe Cairo believes the threat has become. While Arab governments publicly posture against Israel, their actions quietly acknowledge a harsher truth: Israel remains the only stable actor confronting radicalism head-on.
Peace with Egypt endures not because the region is calm, but because Israel enforces deterrence. Gaza’s terror infrastructure and the broader Arab failure to confront extremism have forced even Israel’s neighbors to fortify themselves. The treaty stands—but only because Israel’s strength makes it worth preserving.
