Netanyahu orders urgent plan to halt arms smuggling from Egypt

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday instructed the defense ministry and relevant bodies to prepare recommendations within two months on ways to halt weapons smuggling across the border with Egypt, after a rise in arms smuggling using unmanned aerial vehicles (drones).

The instructions came ahead of an emergency meeting held by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the sharp increase in the number of drones smuggling weapons and military equipment from Egypt into Israel.

According to security sources who presented reports during the session, Israeli forces managed to shoot down only about 50% of the drones over the past two weeks, at a rate of roughly 90 aircraft per week.

During the meeting, Knesset member Tzvi Sukkot warned that “the weapons smuggled from the Egyptian border are intended to seize Israeli military bases in the south,” adding that “the enemy is arming itself freely from within the state’s territory, and these weapons are being used by organizations planning for a new October 7,” he said.

Sukkot also called for the formation of a joint national team from all security agencies — the Shin Bet, Mossad, the military and the police — to confront the phenomenon, saying that Israel is now facing “tunnels in the air after having faced them underground.”