In a moment that reshaped Middle Eastern diplomacy, Egypt and Israel ended decades of conflict on 26 March, 1979, by signing a peace treaty, the first accord between Israel and an Arab country. Yet, more than four decades later, tension still persists. On 4 April, Egyptian officials accused Israel of inflaming tensions by falsely alleging that troop movements in northern Sinai violate the peace treaty between the two countries. With the onset of 7 October, 2023 war between Israel and Hamas, regional tensions have been at an all-time high. While Egypt has continued to play a massive role as a mediator and a facilitator of ceasefire talks, recent allegations of treaty violations have reignited tensions. This follows a series of similar accusations, beginning on 13 January, 2024, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced plans to take over the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometre buffer zone along the Egypt-Gaza border, which Egypt condemned as a breach of the annexes of the 1979 peace treaty. Following a year of conflict, on 24 December 2024, Israel’s former ambassador to Cairo, David Govrin, accused Egypt of breaching the treaty, claiming that Egypt has allocated substantial…
Allegations Emerge Testing Egypt and Israel’s 1979 Peace Treaty
April 22, 2025
By Nadine Tag
Journalist
