Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said that the Israeli Defence Forces on the borders with Egypt will continue to be on high alert until the security situation settles and political stability is restored in Egypt. During his visit to the Givati Brigade’s training base in the Negev Desert on 2 March, Mr. Barack said that Israel is intensifying its efforts to set up a security fence along the border with Egypt.
Across the border in Sinai, the Egyptian army is set to withdraw from the peninsula when calm has been restored in the country. Egyptian forces moved into Sinai, with Israel’s consent, at the beginning of the people’s revolution in January.