Israeli and Egyptian ceasefire negotiators are in talks about an electronic surveillance system along the border between Gaza and Egypt that could help Israel withdraw its troops from the area if a ceasefire is agreed, two Egyptian sources and a third source familiar with the matter said.
The question of whether Israeli forces will remain on the border is one of the issues hampering a potential ceasefire agreement, as both the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Egypt, a mediator in the talks, are opposed to Israel keeping its troops there.
Israel worries that if its troops leave the border area, which Israel calls the Philadelphia Corridor, Hamas’s armed wing could smuggle weapons and supplies from Egypt into Gaza through tunnels, allowing it to re-arm and threaten Israel.
If the parties to the talks can agree on the details, the monitoring system could smooth the way to agreeing on a ceasefire – although many other hurdles still remain.
There have been discussions about a border surveillance system before, but Reuters reports for the first time that Israel is involved in the discussions as part of the current round of talks aimed at withdrawing troops from the border area.
A source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the discussions were “basically about sensors that would be built in the Egyptian part of the Philadelphia (corridor).”
“The purpose is obviously to detect tunnels, and other ways they might be trying to smuggle weapons or people into Gaza. That will obviously be a key element in the hostage agreement.”
Asked if this would be crucial to the ceasefire agreement, since it would mean Israeli troops would not have to remain along the Philadelphia corridor, the source said: “Correct.”
Two Egyptian security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli negotiators had talked about high-tech surveillance systems.
According to two Egyptian sources, Egypt is not against it if it is supported and paid for by the United States. They said Egypt would not agree to anything that would change the border arrangements set out in a previous peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
At a military event on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he could only agree to a deal that retained Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, but he did not clarify whether that meant the physical presence of troops there.
Qatar and Egypt are in talks over a deal backed by Washington that would halt the fighting in Gaza, now in its 10th month, and allow hostages held by Hamas to be released.
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October last year after Hamas-led militants crossed into southern Israel. The offensive killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Since then, its forces have killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza-based medical officials.
Israeli officials have said that during the war Hamas used tunnels to smuggle weapons under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region. Egypt says it destroyed a network of tunnels leading to Gaza several years ago and has created a buffer zone and border fortifications to prevent smuggling.
Israel’s advance into the Rafah area of southern Gaza in early May closed the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and drastically reduced the amount of international aid coming into the Palestinian territory. Egypt says it wants aid supplies to resume in Gaza, but that Palestinian presence at the Rafah crossing must be restored for it to reopen.
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