Egyptian security source denies Israeli aircraft violated country’s airspace

Egyptian army special forces soldiers deploy before the concrete barrier marking the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah in the east of North Sinai province on October 20, 2023 during a visit there by the United Nations secretary-general to oversee preparations for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave. [KEROLOS SALAH/AFP via Getty Images]

An Egyptian security source denied Saturday that an Israeli aircraft had violated the country’s airspace, according to local media, Anadolu reports.

An unnamed security source “denied media reports about the violation of Egyptian airspace by Israeli military aircraft,” the Cairo News Channel reported.

The source described these reports as “false and baseless,” without elaborating on their source.

Tension in Egypt-Israel relations has been rising recently against the backdrop of statements by Israeli officials confirming their intention to launch a military operation on the border and control the Philadelphi axis, which Cairo strongly rejected.

The Philadelphi Corridor is a 14-kilometer (8.69-mile) long corridor, guaranteed by the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed, on more than one occasion, that without controlling the Philadelphi Corridor, the Israeli army will not be able to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,600 people, and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack while over 200 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

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