Is Egypt threatening Israel through its military exercises on the border?

Egypt’s plans to conduct live-fire exercises in Sinai have alarmed Israel’s residents and security officers on the other side of their shared border.

Although the drills were coordinated with Israel within the terms of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries, Israeli residents, including those living close to Gaza, are reported to be concerned about their proximity. Israeli media suggest that many fear a return to the conditions that preceded the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,000 people, most of them civilians.
“The sequence of events is eerily reminiscent of what preceded the October 7 disaster,” one female resident of Bnei Netzarim, a town near the border, told YNet news. “How, after everything we’ve been through, does the [Israeli military] approve a foreign army operating with live fire right on the contact line?”

“Gunfire noise is the perfect cover for smuggling or even a raid. Why allow them to get so close? They have vast areas in Sinai.”

In a statement issued ahead of the drills, the Forum for Israel’s Border Communities also said it was unacceptable for Egyptian forces to conduct exercises so close to the border, adding that the drills resembled patterns seen in the lead-up to the October 7 attack, despite there being no reported link between Egypt and the Hamas led incursion of 2023.

“We warn against the creation of dangerous norms that led to October 7,” the group said, appealing to Israel’s political leaders to halt the drills. “Residents of the border communities are not a testing ground for the State of Israel or a training zone for the Egyptian army.”
The statement also pointed to earlier security approaches, noting Israel’s past acceptance of incendiary balloons from Gaza and citing recent reports that such devices have again been spotted near Kibbutz Nahal, around 700 to 800 metres (2,300 to 2,625 feet) from the Gaza border fence.

So, why are residents so concerned, and is Egypt really testing the limits of the ceasefire?