PALESTINE NEWS AGENCY
Cairo – PNN – Egypt has deployed tanks and thousands of military troops in co-operation with Israel into the Sinai Peninsula in an attempt to regain control of the area.
Control of the Sinai has been in limbo since former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s fall from grace earlier this year after the Egyptian Revolution.
Currently factions of the local Bedouin population have seized control of parts of the Sinai after taking advantage of the political turmoil in Egypt over the past few months.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Egyptian troops accompanied by tanks entered the region on Friday. The apparent aim of the operation is to help Israel stop the movement of provisions from Egypt to Gaza through underground tunnels. Israel claims that these tunnels have been used to smuggle weapons into Gaza and that smuggling has been on the increase since Mubarak’s downfall.
These underground tunnels are often used to provide essential medical, building and food supplies to the 1.5 million Gazans who are under siege in the tiny area of land.
The Israel government had to first approve the troop movement by the Egyptians as any military advance into the region without co-ordination would be in direct breach of the 1978 Camp David Accords.
NOTE: Did you know that Egypt has to beg Israel’s permission to deploy troops in its own territory of Sinai? I suppose the Israelis were finally willing to agree after the pipeline supplying gas to Israel and Jordan has been blown up for the fourth time this year.