Israel Raises Alarm over Sinai-Gaza Security Threat

AFP

JERUSALEM — Israeli is facing a growing security threat to its south because of the changes brought on by the Arab Spring which is not likely to disappear any time soon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

"The security problem which is developing as a result of changes in the Middle East is getting worse, and is expected to continue for years," Netanyahu told MPs at the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defence, in remarks communicated by a spokesman.

"The state of Israel is required to strengthen its defence and attack capabilities immediately, which costs a lot of money," he said.

"Libyan arms continue to flow into Gaza through Sinai," he said, indicating that there were "more than 10,000 missiles" in the coastal enclave, some of which had a range "surpassing 40 kilometres (24 miles)." The ongoing reconciliation process between Fatah and Hamas would force Israel to demand that Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would be under similar terms as Fatah-controlled West Bank, Netanyahu said.

"Fatah-Hamas unity would force us to demand that the Gaza Strip be demilitarised," he said.

He accused Iran of using the Egyptian Sinai as a staging area for launching attacks on Israel.

"Terror elements have entered the region, they're using the area as a platform for terror, Sinai has become a destination for Iran," he said, noting that in an attack last summer a missile was shot at a helicopter, which managed to dodge it.

In the August attack, gunmen infiltrated southern Israel from Sinai and launched a coordinated series of ambushes on buses and cars on the route which runs along the Egyptian border some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat, leaving eight dead and more than 25 wounded.

"The peace with Egypt has been and is valuable to both countries, but under the surface, the civilian grudge against Israel on the street has become a political asset," Netanyahu continued.

In September, the Muslim Brotherhood, whose rise followed president Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February, demanded a "revision" of ties with Israel but did not call for scrapping the treaty, the first between Israel and an Arab country.

The Brotherhood also has close ties with the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, which is viewed as a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.

Netanyahu warned that breaking the treaty with Israel would cost its southern neighbour dearly.

"US financial support to Egypt, following the peace with Israel, could be terminated if the peace treaty is cancelled," he said.

"It is clear to us that all we knew in Egypt under Mubarak's regime is not what will be in the future, and there will be wide security implications."