 Palestinians gather at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. |
Egypt has denied assertions that Israel stopped its military operations in the Gaza Strip after signing a security agreement with Cairo.
Israel and the US have publicly signed an agreement to restrict arms flow into Gaza, raising speculation that Egypt had promised to cooperation for the realization of the deal.
A senior Israeli official fueled the speculations on Monday by claiming that Tel Aviv had announced its ceasefire in Gaza after Egypt and the United States promised to bring to a halt all weapon imports into Gaza.
"Israel and Egypt have reached written understandings on security arrangements to prevent arms smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border and deeper inside the Sinai Peninsula," AFP quoted the unnamed Israeli official as saying.
Tel Aviv says the alleged agreement was made during talks between its envoy, Amos Gilad, and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. The two met twice in Cairo during the war on Gaza.
On Tuesday, however, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki denied the existence of such a deal, saying Cairo has not signed an agreement to end arms smuggling into Gaza.
Israel ended its offensive against Gaza on Saturday and declared a unilateral ceasefire without having achieved any of the objectives it had previously sought.
Some officials in Tel Aviv had originally described toppling the democratically-elected ruler of the strip, Hamas, as their objective. Other officials later downgraded Israeli objectives, saying they only sought to weaken the Hamas movement and end rocket attacks on their communities.
In response to Tel Aviv's unilateral ceasefire, Hamas brought a ceasefire into effect on Sunday but gave Israel a one-week ultimatum to completely withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli failure to bring the coastal sliver under its rein and its inability to achieve its goals has prompted Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to declare the war as "a great victory" for the entire Palestinian population.
The intense 23-day Israeli military operations in Gaza, led to the death of nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Nearly 5,400 Gazans were wounded.
During the war, Egypt kept the Rafah international crossing, the only gateway between the populated strip and the outside world, closed and generally refused to allow foreign medical teams and humanitarian aid passage into the Gaza Strip.
Israel ended its offensive against Gaza on Saturday and declared a unilateral ceasefire without having achieved any of the objectives it had previously sought.
Some officials in Tel Aviv had originally described toppling the democratically-elected ruler of the strip, Hamas, as their objective. Other officials later downgraded Israeli objectives, saying they only sought to weaken the Hamas movement and end rocket attacks on their communities.
In response to Tel Aviv's unilateral ceasefire, Hamas brought a ceasefire into effect on Sunday but gave Israel a one-week ultimatum to completely withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
The Israeli failure to bring the coastal sliver under its rein and its inability to achieve its goals has prompted Hamas leader Ismail Haniya to declare the war as "a great victory" for the entire Palestinian population.
The intense 23-day Israeli military operations in Gaza, led to the death of nearly 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. Nearly 5,400 Gazans were wounded.
During the war, Egypt kept the Rafah international crossing, the only gateway between the populated strip and the outside world, closed and generally refused to allow foreign medical teams and humanitarian aid passage into the Gaza Strip.
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