Egypt said assembling forces in Sinai over concerns Israel is seeking to uproot Gazans

An Egyptian source confirms to the Haaretz daily that Egypt is building up military forces in the Sinai Peninsula but denies Cairo has “offensive intentions.”

“[Egypt] sees peace with Israel as a strategic asset. Its main concern is that Palestinians will be forcibly uprooted from their territory,” the source is quoted as saying.

Additional Egyptian and diplomatic sources tell the Israeli newspaper that Cairo is concerned that Netanyahu is trying to reduce Egypt’s troop presence in the Sinai in order to coercively remove Palestinians from the area.

A Middle Eastern intelligence source, however, denies there has been any significant change in Egypt’s force posture in the Sinai and says claims to the contrary are “periodically recycled” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to create a rift with Cairo.

The source claims to The Times of Israel that the only significant change in security arrangements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai is that the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) has ceased enforcement against alleged Israeli violations of the peace treaty due to the IDF’s force buildup in Zone D, which is also known as the Philadelphi Corridor border strip between Gaza and Egypt.