Israelis question number of Egyptian troops in Sinai

The media in Israel has reported a number of analyses of the announcement by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of the number of Egyptian troops in Sinai, Masralarabia.com reported on Wednesday. In a TV interview, the Egyptian leader said that there are 20,000 to 25,000 of his soldiers in the peninsula.

Israel Defence pointed out that the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt allows just 10,000 to 15,000 Egyptian troops to be deployed up to 50km from the Suez Canal. However, the troops are currently deployed all over the Sinai Peninsula and are also along the border with Israel.

“If this is true, it means that Al-Sisi sent more than twice the number of Egyptian troops to Sinai than allowed in the peace treaty,” said the magazine. “He has not yet revealed what and how much military equipment and weapons were allowed in Sinai.”

However, the report reiterated that Israel does not see any danger with these changes because Sinai is under Egyptian sovereignty and the fight against terror has been laid on its shoulders. “It cannot carry out this mission without troops and weapons,” the magazine said, adding that Israel must have agreed to this step. Indeed, it noted that this would also have been given the go-ahead by the US; Egypt would not want to jeopardise the aid it gets from Washington, currently worth around $1.5 billion.

“The Egyptian president speaks about 25,000 Egyptian troops fighting 1,000 fighters from Ansar Baytul-Maqdis [ISIS in Sinai], which have killed more than 1,000 Egyptian soldiers,” tweeted one Israeli analyst. “This is the best credit for ISIS.”