IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir and Defense Minister Israel Katz, both at separate meetings over the past two days, announced orders to “declare war” on any attempts by Hamas or other adversaries to attack Israel with drones or to use them to smuggle weapons across the Egypt-Israel border for criminal purposes.
For years, Israel has not experienced a serious military ground forces security threat on the Egyptian border, but even before the Israel-Hamas War, there was a huge problem with smuggling weapons and drugs across it.
That problem grew more complex as many hostile parties and criminal enterprises saw that Israeli air defenses struggled to intercept drones; even if they intercepted some, enough still got through to make drone smuggling economically viable.
At the meeting led by Zamir, he instructed the military to undertake additional efforts and use resources in order to combat the Egyptian border drone issue.
Zamir’s meeting focused on the IDF’s Operations Directorate and was part of a multi-organizational process aimed at constructing a comprehensive plan for tackling the growing threat.
IDF to tackle Egypt drone issue
The IDF chief stated that the drone threat is “not merely a criminal threat but a security threat with terror potential,” emphasizing the military’s commitment to address the issue more robustly, while developing new operational capabilities.”
There was a list of new moves by the defense establishment to address the threat, including establishing a special joint IDF, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and police unit and command and control mechanism to handle the issue; intensifying intelligence collection; and earmarking much larger resources for building up longer-term capabilities for defense in this area.
This would include developing new defense technologies and forming a new combat unit to confront smuggling attempts in the complex nighttime sand dune terrain.
The new IDF focus will still remain within the military's 80th Division, which is responsible for Egyptian border security. According to the IDF, Israeli side-smugglers usually set up between one and five kilometers from the border, after which they send drones into Egyptian territory.
Next, Egyptian-side smugglers load the drones with weapons and drugs, and the Israeli-side smugglers control and navigate them back to their original position.
Katz also held a meeting on the drone threat with the IDF, Shin Bet, police, and Defense Ministry officials.
The defense minister ordered “the IDF to turn the area adjacent to the border into a closed military zone and to adjust the rules of engagement in order to strike the drone threat, which endangers the state’s security,” including that “anyone who penetrates into the prohibited area will pay a grave price.”
It was unclear exactly how far Katz wanted the IDF to go in changing its rules of engagement and in redefining closed military zones along the border, and Zamir did not reference these points, leaving them potentially in the air.
The issue is doubly complex as it comes at a time when the IDF technically lacks a chief lawyer because of the sudden and unexpected resignation of Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, even as former defense ministry legal advisor Itay Ophir is expected to replace her in the near future.
Echoing Zamir, the defense minister also stated that various defense ministry and air force officials would develop new technological solutions to counter the drone threat.
He added that the National Security Council would assist with reframing licensing requirements and legislation regarding using, buying, and possessing drones.
Katz also referenced speaking directly with incoming Shin Bet Director David Zini, directing the agency to “define the issue of weapon smuggling threats via drones on the Israel-Egypt border as a terrorist threat,” which would enable security bodies to use a wider range of powerful surveillance tools to combat the threat.
He said that Israel must establish stronger deterrence so that those engaged in smuggling will realize that “the rules of the game are changing, and they will pay a very heavy price if they do not” stop their smuggling efforts.
Curiously, Katz made direct reference to Zini, whereas Zamir did not.
Although Zamir congratulated Zini once his new appointment was finalized, there was clear bad blood between the two.
This is because Zamir was passing over Zini for promotion in the IDF, and because Zini, while still an IDF officer, interviewed for the Shin Bet position with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu without giving Zamir the customary pre-warning for such inter-agency interactions.