Egyptian Military Officials Cancel Meetings with Israeli Counterparts

Egyptian army soldiers at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza at the beginning of May (German News Agency)

Egyptian military officials canceled scheduled meetings with their Israeli counterparts, without previous notice, an Israeli source told the Israeli i24 channel on Tuesday.
This came in the wake of Israel's military escalation in eastern Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli sources said that the sudden cancellation indicates the deepening diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Egypt had repeatedly warned Israel against attacking Rafah, saying it would affect Egyptian national security. But the Israeli army penetrated east of Rafah last week and took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing.
In response, Cairo declared its support for the lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), on charges of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The cancellation of the military meetings angered the Israeli side, given the necessary cooperation between the two countries in the Sinai Peninsula.
Although no official in Egypt spoke explicitly about the possibility of suspending or canceling the peace agreement, Israel monitored threats from media figures and researchers close to the decision-making center in Cairo.
Ofir Winter, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said that Egypt’s announcement of its support to the petition submitted by South Africa against Israel before the ICJ in The Hague was an escalation in the tension that has recently been observed between the two countries since the start of the limited army incursion into Rafah.
He added that the Egyptian move aims to increase international pressure on Israel to prevent it from expanding the operation in Rafah, and to warn that the continuation of the operation will affect the relations between the two countries.
Winter noted that in recent days, he has heard threats from media professionals and researchers close to the regime in Cairo, to harm relations between the two countries to the point of suspending or canceling the peace agreement.
He stressed that Egypt will lose a lot if it withdraws from the peace agreement, adding that the threats - even if they are only rhetorical - may create a dangerous dynamic in a sensitive period.