CAIRO – The Camp David Accord hasn't put an end to Israeli violence in the Sinai Peninsula, as the killing of five Egyptian servicemen on the borders shows. The recent killing of two Egyptian officers and three soldiers, as well as the injuring of others, will surely not be the last in a long series of military operations on the borders between Egypt and Israel. In November 2000, an Egyptian citizen called Soliman Kambiz and his aunt were shot dead by Israeli forces while harvesting olives. The following year, an Egyptian woman from the Barahma tribe was injured by Israeli gunfire, while sitting outside her home near the border. In May 2001, a 20-year-old Egyptian soldier called Ahmed Eissa was also injured by Israeli gunfire, while on duty in the border area. Also in 2001, a 28-year-old Egyptian officer named Omar Taha Mohamed was shot and injured during a gun battle between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians near the Egyptian border. In the same year, 17-year-old Mohamed Gomaa el-Barahma was shot in the shoulder. In 2002, a little boy called Fares el-Kambis was also injured �" shot in the leg �" while playing outside his family's home. In October 2004, an Israeli missile landed in the garden of a house in Egyptian Rafah, but no-one was injured. Mubarak's regime did nothing in reaction to these incidents. But now, there has been a strong reaction to the killing of the five Egyptian servicemen last week, with popular calls for withdrawing the Egyptian Ambassador in Israel. Israel has said it ‘regrets' the Egyptian deaths and Israeli Minister of Defence Ehud Barak has told the Army to investigate the incident. There have also been calls to beef up the Egyptian military presence on the border with Israel, in order to respond to any Israeli military action. In addition, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has asked the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to summon the Israeli Chargé d'Affaires, in order to inform him of Egypt's anger at the recent shootings. According to the Cabinet website, Egypt said that Israel should bear legal and political responsibility for the recent incident on the Egyptian border, considered as a violation of Camp David. In the meantime, Barak has claimed that the Egyptian authorities have lost control of Sinai, even though Israeli TV broadcast a statement by South Sinai Governor Khaled Fouda, who said that Egypt had nothing to do with the Eilat operation and denied that the terrorists had entered Israel from Egypt. One wonders whether the problems will lead to another war between Egypt and Israel. Nabil Abdel-Fattah, a researcher at Al-Aharm Studies Centre, doubts this will happen, because of the nature of the strategic balance in the region and the instability in a number of Arab countries, due to the revolutions there. “The people in most Arab states are interested in toppling their corrupt rulers, not in going to war against Israel,” he told Al-Wafd opposition newspaper. Mohamed Esmat el-Sadat, deputy founder of the Reform and Development Party, also doubts there'll be another war, despite the serious Israeli aggression. He stresses need to reorganise security and increase the number of Egyptian troops on the border by adjusting the relevant article in the Camp David Accord. Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, Director of the Cairo Centre for Studies, agrees on the need to boost the number of Egyptian soldiers on the border to enhance national security.
