International pressures have lately been mounting on Egypt to stop the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip through border tunnels. This is the condition Israel has set to accept the Egyptian ceasefire proposal. Western diplomats have put forward proposals to deploy international forces on the Egyptian side of the borders, but Cairo is opposed. Egypt says it may accept more technical aid from Europe and America so that its forces may secure the borders. The US has been working with Egypt for some time now on this issue. Officials from the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have been visiting the border zones several times. British newspaper The Times said "a plan to create a new foothold in Gaza for the Palestinian Authority and to bring in international monitors was being drawn up by diplomats yesterday". The Times pointed out negotiations are under way on this plan as part of the Egyptian peace initiative. "Diplomats are considering taking a triangle at the southern end of Gaza, including the Rafah crossing to Egypt and the Kerem Shalom crossing to Israel, to be policed by Turkish and French military monitors to stop arms smuggling into Gaza" it went on to say. The Head of the security and military bureau of the Israeli defense ministry Amos Gilad is expected to go to Cairo in the next few hours to discuss this issue with Egyptian officials for the second time since Egypt put forward its initiative. Gilad said Israel was objectively discussing with Egypt the issue of arms smuggling, pointing out that Egypt has high-level security bodies and an army capable of curbing all disturbing phenomena. He added that an international force would not be able to stop arms smuggling from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Social Affair Minister Mahmoud Al-Habbash reiterated that the deployment of international forces in the Gaza Strip might contribute to protecting civilians from Israel's war machine. Speaking to the Egyptian television yesterday, the minister said he was astonished at Israel's and Hamas' refusal to the deployment of international forces, adding there are people investing in the current bloodshed in the Gaza Strip to achieve political goals. With regard to the Egyptian initiative, the Palestinian minister said it was an executive mechanism to apply the 1860 Security Council resolution, adding that Hamas's stance on the initiative was incomprehensible and that 60 people die on average every day in the Gaza Strip. Egypt had ruled out the possibility of allowing the deployment of international forces on its side of the borders with Gaza as part of a possible ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. For its part, Hamas refused a similar deployment in the Gaza Strip, as Israel is demanding a new mechanism to prevent Hamas from receiving weapons smuggled through the 15-km tunnels stretching across the borders between Egypt and Gaza. The German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier said Germany was ready to send a delegation of German experts to Egypt over the next few days to help stop the smuggling into the Gaza Strip through Egyptian Rafah.
