Gaza talks explore alternative to Israeli troops on Gaza-Egypt border: Sources

CAIRO – Israeli and Egyptian ceasefire negotiators are in talks about an electronic surveillance system along the border between Gaza and Egypt that could allow Israel to pull back its troops from the area

if a ceasefire is agreed

, according to two Egyptian sources and a third source familiar with the matter.

The question of whether Israeli forces will stay on the border is one of the issues blocking a potential ceasefire deal, as both Palestinian militant group Hamas and Egypt, a mediator in the talks, are opposed to Israel keeping its forces there.

Israel is worried that if its troops leave the border zone, referred to by Israel as the Philadelphi corridor, Hamas’ armed wing could smuggle in weapons and supplies from Egypt into Gaza via tunnels that would allow it to re-arm and threaten Israel again.

A surveillance system – if the parties to the negotiations agree on the details – could therefore smooth the path to agreeing a ceasefire, though numerous other stumbling blocks remain.

Discussions about a surveillance system on the border have been reported before, but Reuters is reporting for the first time that Israel is engaging in the discussions as part of the current round of talks, with a view to pulling back forces from the border area.

The source familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the discussions are “basically (about) sensors that would be built on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphi (corridor)”.

“The idea is obviously to detect tunnels, to detect any other ways that they’d be trying to smuggle weapons or people into Gaza. Obviously, this would be a significant element in a hostage agreement.”

Asked if this would be significant for a ceasefire deal, since it would mean Israeli soldiers would not have to be on the Philadelphi corridor, the source said: “Correct.”

The two Egyptian security sources, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said Israeli negotiators had spoken about a high-tech surveillance system, and that Egypt was not opposed to the system if it was supported and paid for by the US.

But Egypt would not agree to anything that would change border arrangements between it and Israel, set out in a prior peace treaty.

At a military event on July 11, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he could agree only to a deal that preserved Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border, but he did not spell out whether that meant having troops physically present there.

Talks are under way in Qatar and Egypt on a deal backed by Washington that would allow a pause in the fighting in Gaza, now in its 10th month, and the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Israel started its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023 after Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, its forces have killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to the medical authorities in Gaza.

Israeli officials have said during the war that Hamas used tunnels running under the border into Egypt’s Sinai region to smuggle arms. Egypt says it destroyed tunnel networks leading to Gaza years ago and created a buffer zone and border fortifications that prevent smuggling.

Israel’s advance into southern Gaza’s Rafah area in early May led to the closure of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza and a sharp reduction in the amount of international aid entering the Palestinian territory.

Egypt says it wants aid deliveries to Gaza to resume, but that a Palestinian presence should be restored at the Rafah crossing for it to reopen. REUTERS