Egyptian army soldiers guard their side of the Rafah crossing, closed since early May, on July 4, 2024, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continues. [Getty]
Israel is reportedly in direct contact with high-level Egyptian diplomatic and intelligence officials, shortly after the assassination of Palestinian Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar earlier last week, to revive peace talks and secure the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas.
“Israel has also sought the support of the US and Qatar in mediation efforts. Doha, however, has its reservations about Tel Aviv and the [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s apparent lack of a sincere desire to reach an accord satisfactory to all involved parties before a new US president is elected,” a senior Egyptian intelligence official said to The New Arab.
“On the other hand, Egyptian and US officials are on the same page: Pursuing means to end the war, especially given the grave losses on both the Israeli and Palestinian fronts, [and it] extending to Lebanon,” the official told TNA on condition of anonymity for not being authorised to talk to the media.
“Hamas leaders, meanwhile, welcomed the possibility of reaching a truce but remained unwilling to make concessions or abide by Israel’s terms in full,” the source added.
During his visit to Israel on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Netanyahu to capitalise on the killing of Sinwar to work towards a Gaza ceasefire, pressing for more aid into the besieged Gaza Strip. Blinken’s visit to Israel is the eleventh to the Middle East since the war first erupted on 7 October last year.
Undeclared intelligence coordination
Undeclared coordination between Cairo and Tel Aviv has already been underway.
On Monday, Virginia-based Axios online news outlet reported, citing two unnamed Israeli officials as saying that, during a meeting held in Cairo a day earlier, Egypt’s new general intelligence chief, Hassan Rashad, proposed to Israel’s Shin Bet chief Baranm “a small” hostage ceasefire deal in Gaza that could preclude “a broader agreement” at a later stage.
The meeting between Rashad and Ban, reported by several Israeli news outlets too, took place almost one week after Rashad assumed his position as Egypt’s new intelligence chief.
Such reports had been preceded by similar ones on talks reportedly held in Cairo between Rashad’s predecessor, ex-spy chief and long-time closest aide of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Abbas Kamel, and Bar over the similar topic, reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, which has not been officially affirmed either.
A few days later, Sisi laid off Kamel, assigning him to an advisory positions instead, a move that has ever since triggered a state of confusion inside political and intelligence circles domestically and beyond.
Egypt’s proximity to and historical relationship with Gaza, as well as its relations with Israel, make Cairo’s role pivotal to end Israel’s war.
Despite Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza that has claimed over 42,000 Palestinian lives, the Sisi’s regime treats Israel as a friendly nation with strong ties in several fields, particularly economic and security. Meanwhile, the Egyptian public mostly opposes normalisation with Israel.
Nevertheless, tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv escalated over the past months after Israel had overrun the Philadelphi Corridor, also seizing control of Gaza’s side of the Rafah crossing in North Sinai, the only exit for Gaza’s Palestinian population to the outside world.
By taking control of the corridor and the crossing, Israel violated the decades-long peace treaty with Egypt. The Philadelphi Corridor is a narrow 14-kilometre strip of land covering the entire border between Egypt and Gaza.