Egypt's military on Wednesday said thousands of troops backed by fighter jets, helicopter gunships and tanks have finished the main phase of a live-fire “tactical war” drill.
In an announcement on Facebook, the chief military spokesman did not say when the drill was concluded or where it was held.
The exercise involved ground units from the 3rd Field Army, which is based in the city of Suez on the Red Sea. The 3rd Army is partially stationed in the Sinai Peninsula, the main theatre of operations in Egypt's four wars with Israel in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973.
Footage posted by the spokesman showed tanks and artillery firing, rockets launched and helicopter gunships and warplanes bombing positions in a wide and flat desert theatre.
The final stage of the drill was attended by Defence Minister Gen Ashraf Zaher.
“The armed forces … are capable of protecting the nation and safeguarding its sanctities in the face of the variables and challenges roiling the region,” Gen Zaher told the participating troops in an address.
“What has been achieved … assures the glorious people of Egypt on their armed forces' constant combat readiness to protect Egyptian national security on all strategic fronts,” he added.
Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979 that has been widely viewed as a cornerstone of regional stability. However, relations have plummeted since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023, with Cairo accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave and deliberately starving its 2.3 million residents. Israel denies the charges.
Right-wing Israeli media have since 2023 claimed that Egypt poses a real and imminent threat to their country's security, owing to Cairo's heavy procurement of weapons from manufacturers in Europe and Asia, as well as the massing of troops and air, naval and ground assets in Sinai.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has indirectly responded to those claims by asserting that peace remained Cairo's strategic choice. But he has also used strong language to condemn Israel's conduct in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and foiling Israeli ambitions to dominate the region has become one of Egypt's main foreign policy goals.
Israeli media have responded to the Egyptian drills by accusing Cairo of provocation and of breaching the peace treaty's limits on the number of troops and types of weapons allowed in Sinai. They also claimed that the exercises were taking place only 100 metres from the countries' shared border, causing residents of Israeli communities to panic.
