Egypt's Air force chief dispatches warplanes to patrol border with Israel, despite peace treaty terms, MENA news agency reports; 'We do not need permission to increase our forces on our land,' General Reda Hafiz says
AFP
Egypt's air force chief said on Thursday that Egyptian warplanes are patrolling Sinai without Israel's consent, despite a 1979 peace treaty limiting Egypt's military presence in the peninsula.
"Sinai is our land, and we do not need permission to increase our forces on our land," General Reda Hafiz told the official MENA news agency.
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"Egyptian planes conduct patrols to secure all Egypt's borders, including the eastern border," he said.
Parts of Sinai have been restricted to Egyptian troops under the terms of the 1979 treaty, by which Israel agreed to withdraw from the territory. In recent months, however, the Egyptian army has deployed reinforcements with Israeli consent to tackle suspected Islamist militants.
The government had approved an increase in Egyptian army deployment to Sinai in August after a series of deadly attacks on the south were blamed on militants operating out of the territory.
On August 18, terrorists armed with heavy weapons, guns and explosives launched four attacks in quick succession in southern Israel near the border with Egypt, killing seven people and wounding dozens more.
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