[NEWARAB] Israeli military and political officials are once more sounding the alarm over what they describe as 'build-up' by the Egyptian military in the Sinai Peninsula, calling for caution and warning against a potential confrontation with Egypt in the future.
Citing Egyptian military activity in the north-western territory, which was liberated by Egypt from Israeli occupation in 1973, the officials referred to logistical preparations and the construction of cement obstacles in central Sinai.
These obstacles, they were quoted by some Israeli media outlets as saying, aim at blocking Israeli armoured vehicles.
Egypt, they claimed, maintains more than a dozen tunnels between Rafah in the Gaza Strip and points deep in Sinai, which have not been demolished yet.
The new warnings come less than a month after a retired Israeli diplomat accused Egypt of violating the 1979 peace treaty with his country by increasing troop presence in Sinai.
David Govrin, who served as Israel's ambassador to Cairo from July 2016 to May 2019 and was Israel's first ambassador to Morocco, told the Hebrew news site, Ynet, last month that Egypt was sending more troops into Sinai than stipulated in the security annex of the treaty.
Egypt is investing, he said, huge amounts of money in the military build-up, even as no other country threatens it and despite its tough economic conditions.
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