Over the past years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and deadly attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013.
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A roadside bombing in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula kills two policemen, according to the interior ministry.
“The level of cooperation is something we’ve never experienced before”, Major-General Yair Golan, the Israeli Deputy Chief of General Staff, said to Bloomberg.
“It’s not about love, it’s not about common values”, he said. “I wouldn’t describe it as the relationship we have with the United States of America, but I think it’s a good starting point”, Golan said.
Israel is conducting armed drone operations in Sinai. The number is capped under the Camp David peace accords signed between the two states in 1979 and any Egyptian troop increase in the area requires Israeli approval.
The Bloomberg article also noted that the growing affinity between the former arch enemies was due to domestic interests as well.
The report comes a day after Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an attempt to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. Shoukry’s visit marked the first by an Egyptian foreign minister to Israel since 2007.
Shoukry claimed in a joint press conference with the Israeli prime minister that Cairo is committed to a “two-state” solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Such a monumental achievement will have a far reaching and dramatic and positive impact on the overall situation in the Mideast region”, he said.
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Egypt is contributing to the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip by refusing to allow Gazans through the only crossing that by-passes Israel, namely the Rafah border crossing, which leads into Egyptian territory. “The current state of affairs is, unfortunately, neither stable nor sustainable”.
