Israel’s unprecedented attack on the Qatari capital Doha on 9 September and on Gaza City on Tuesday has strained Egyptian-Israeli relations once again, causing Egypt to reduce its coordination with Israel until further notice following Israel’s strike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Doha last week.
“Egypt is planning to restructure its security communications with Israel following the Doha attack,” Al-Arabiya TV channel reported on Sunday, citing an official Egyptian source.
Another source told the channel that “Egypt will choose how and when to communicate with Israel, but as long as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues his current aggressive policies, Egypt’s engagement will remain minimal and guided strictly by its national security interests.”
“Egyptian-Israeli communication is now at its lowest point since being reduced to the military coordination committee established under the Camp David Accords,” Al-Arabiya cited another source as saying.
The source said that “for the time being Egypt has decided to scale back the Gaza ceasefire talks and keep its involvement to the minimum unless Netanyahu changes course, and then only if it serves Egypt’s core national security interests.”
Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty condemned Israel’s strike on Qatar and attacks on Gaza City, stating that this blatant aggression sets a dangerous precedent that not only targets the security of Qatar, but also constitutes a direct attack on Arab national security.
Al-Ahram political analyst Gamal Abdel-Gawwad told Al-Ahram Weekly that Egypt is now exercising the utmost level of self-restraint, but at the same time it is preparing itself for worst-case scenarios.
Statements released by top Egyptian officials, including President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Abdelatty, signal growing frustration with Israel following its strike on Qatar and decision to attack Gaza City, according to Abdel-Gawwad.
He said that while Cairo has stopped short of withdrawing from the Gaza ceasefire talks, Egyptian officials agree that the recent Israeli escalation could prompt a reassessment of its diplomatic engagement.
What makes things worse, said Abdel-Gawwad, is that the US administration under President Donald Trump is no longer a neutral or reliable partner in mediation efforts.
According to one source, Egypt will not formally suspend negotiations aimed at ending the war in Gaza, but its involvement may be scaled back if Israel continues what officials have described as “dangerous developments” under Netanyahu.
In a related context, the US network CNN cited an Egyptian official as saying that Egypt has conveyed a message to Washington stating that any Israeli attempt to operate on Egyptian territory, such as the raids that targeted Doha, would have dire consequences.
CNN added that no progress has been made in talks with the United States to renew a ceasefire, and that any similar Israeli attack on Egyptian soil would trigger “devastating consequences”.
Egyptian officials reportedly reaffirmed their intention to host and protect Palestinian faction leaders on Egyptian territory.
The Israeli Broadcasting Authority confirmed that Egypt has warned Israel via the United States that any attack on its territory would constitute a flagrant violation of the 1979 Peace Treaty between the two countries.
In a speech before the Arab-Islamic Summit in Qatar on Monday, Al-Sisi warned that “Israel’s aggressive actions threaten the security of all the peoples in the region, including the Israeli people, and they obstruct any prospects for new peace treaties, even thwarting the existing ones, with the Arab countries.”
Abdel-Gawwad said that Al-Sisi’s words convey a direct message to the Israelis: any military adventure on Egyptian soil would mean the end of the 1979 Peace Treaty.
Military expert Samir Farag said Israel would not dare to repeat the aggression it launched against Qatar on Egyptian territory.
“Egypt will not remain silent if Israel thinks of targeting any Hamas member on its territory. We will not simply condemn it, nor will we go to the United Nations or the United States to appeal for help. We are Egypt,” Farag said, indicating that the Egyptian response would be decisive.
Farag added that recent Israeli statements about targeting Hamas leaders wherever they are are for domestic consumption only and “Israel and America are well aware of Egypt’s strength and understand the capabilities and competence of the Egyptian army.”
Abdel-Gawwad agreed that the language of force adopted by Netanyahu’s far-right government shows that it is destabilising the region and jeopardising peace treaties like the one reached with Egypt 45 years ago.
“Top officials are clear that any military assault on Egyptian territory will be considered an act of war and Egypt will react decisively to defend its national security,” Abdel-Gawwad said.
ARAB FORCE: Egypt is seeking to revive proposals for a joint Arab military force modelled on NATO, according to multiple Arabic-language reports on Saturday.
Al-Arabiya cited a government source as saying that President Al-Sisi is working to build Arab backing for a rapid reaction force that could deploy to protect any Arab state under attack and said that the proposal had been floated in diplomatic circles ahead of the Doha Summit on Monday.
Farag explained that President Al-Sisi first made the suggestion in 2015. He said that there is a joint Arab defence treaty that goes back to 1950, but it has not been activated.
“We hope the formation of the joint Arab force will become a fact on the ground one day, as the Israeli aggression against Qatar has revealed the extent of our need for it,” Farag said.
“The hope of Egypt and the Arabs is unity and not relying on America or any other power.”
A video of President Al-Sisi from 10 years ago circulated this week on different Egyptian social-media platforms showing him speaking about the need to form a unified Arab defence force.
Although Al-Sisi’s 2015 initiative came in the context of escalating security threats in the region at that time, particularly with the threat of radical groups like the Islamic State group, the joint Arab force never materialised.
This was due to the lack of a strategic consensus among key Arab states and weak implementation and funding mechanisms.
Egyptian national security researcher Mohamed Makhlouf believes that the failure of the Arab states to establish a unified military force was not because of a lack of resources, but rather because of a lack of political will, fragmented interests, and the interference of external powers.
Makhlouf explained that the idea is not impossible, but it requires unified political leadership, supportive popular will, a binding legal framework, sustainable joint funding, and a unified security strategy.
“A fair mechanism must be established to distribute the financial burdens between the rich and poor countries, with each participating according to its economic capacity to achieve the desired goal and purpose of establishing the Arab force, which is to protect the Arabs,” Makhlouf said.
The force would be designed to act as a deterrence and to confront threats quickly and decisively. It would send a message to Israel and the world that the Arabs have a strong military force with deterrent capability, he said.
In his speech at the Arab Summit on Monday, President Al-Sisi said Israel’s arrogance and growing intransigence require the Arab and Islamic worlds to establish an Arab-Islamic mechanism for coordination and cooperation.
“This will be a good basis on which we can establish the necessary executive mechanisms to deal with the delicate circumstances we are experiencing in a manner that prevents regional hegemony by force or the imposition of unilateral security arrangements that undermine the security and stability of the Arab and Islamic countries,” Al-Sisi said.
Egypt’s proposal to form a joint military force quickly resonated in Israel. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid commented on the X platform that Egypt’s proposal is a severe blow to the peace agreements and the so-called Abraham Accords.
“It also came right after the overwhelming majority of countries that were once Israel’s allies voted last week in favour of establishing a Palestinian state,” Lapid concluded, referring to last week’s vote at the UN in New York.
Lapid accused Netanyahu’s government of undermining Israel’s international standing. “A deadly combination of irresponsibility, amateurism, and arrogance is tearing Israel apart. The Netanyahu government must be replaced before it’s too late,” Lapid said.
Ahmed Fouad Abaza, head of the Egyptian parliament’s Arab Affairs Committee, said that a unified Arab military force could have prevented many of the crises that have hit the region, such as the foreign interventions in Lebanon, Syria, and Libya.
He emphasised that such a force would have enforced respect for Arab sovereignty and prevented the fragmentation of different states. “If a unified Arab army had existed, it would have made Israel think a thousand times before undertaking any hostile action and would have imposed an immediate collective military deterrent that would have prevented the recurrence of any attacks,” Abaza said.
He warned that the absence of an effective collective defence mechanism has encouraged Israel to persist in its policies, believing that Arab fragmentation and the lack of military coordination serve Israel’s expansionist goals.
He added that a unified Arab force would also enable the development of joint Arab technical capabilities and defence industries, reducing the reliance on foreign weapons and enhancing strategic independence, particularly from the United States.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 18 September, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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