Cairo’s failure to tackle the exporting of weapons and drugs through drones to Israel is likely contributing to both the Arab crime crisis and empowering terrorist acts against Israel, two former diplomats told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
Ambassador David Govrin, Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Reichman University, told the Post that Israel was dedicating significant energy to tackling the threat, which has only grown in recent years as technology has continued to develop.
Noting that a drone’s current weight capacity is around 150 kg, Govrin asserted that there is a “huge challenge” in tackling the threat.
“All security forces cooperated in this, in this campaign, in this struggle, the police, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and the army. And the idea is, of course, to detect, to thwart any attempt to cross the border, because we are talking about drones that are being used not only for weapons, but also for some drugs,” Govrin explained.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post’s Senior Military and Intelligence Analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob, as many as 20 drones can fly across the border on any given day, transporting with them drugs, weapons, and, more recently, animals.
Asked if the drones were contributing to the Arab murder crisis, which saw 252 people lose their lives to crime-related killing in 2025, according to numbers published by the Abraham Initiatives, Govrin said he could assume so.
“Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to buy a rifle or a gun or whatever in the market. They are not dependent solely on this trafficking of weapons from Egypt to Israel. But I’m sure that part of it,” he said, disclosing he could not prove such a statement immediately.
”I mean, even if the border was blocked, you could buy rifles and other stuff… So, of course, it might add fuel to the fire – there’s no doubt about it. But this is not the only source of weapons that are being used in the Arab community.”
Beyond representing a security risk, the consistent drone deliveries have become a diplomatic issue, he explained. Under the framework of the cooperation agreement signed by the two militaries, Cairo is obligated to address the issue.
“I’m sure that the Israeli side raised this issue more than once, but I don’t see, you know, the result on the ground, and I’m very concerned about it, because one of the Egyptian duties, according to the commitments, according to the peace treaty, is to prevent such activity,” Govrin said.
“I mean, it’s obvious, and I don’t see it on the ground again. I’m not a military expert… But the fact that these drones continue to come and to infiltrate Israeli territory from Egyptian territory is a great source of concern for all of us. So this is something that we should ask ourselves: why do the Egyptians not cooperate effectively and prevent this kind of transfer, or transaction of weapons and drugs from their territory to the territory of the state of Israel?”
The same concern was expressed by Arab affairs expert Ruth Wasserman Lande, the former deputy ambassador to Cairo, who told the Post that the drone threat far outweighed security issues posed by anti-Israel radicalization in Egypt and the release of Palestinian terrorists into the neighboring territory.
”If it (the drone smuggling) were reversed, if our Bedouins were simply allowed or not stopped, you know, passing weapons to the Egyptian, an uproar would arise, and rightfully so. I mean, it’s unimaginable that this could even happen,” she explained.
While asserting the drone issue remains a significant one, Land shared there were concerns that terrorists released into Egypt as part of the final ceasefire-hostage deal will create new cells on Israel’s border in a similar fashion to those seen in Lebanon.
“Palestinians were known to do that in Lebanon, in Kuwait, in Tunisia, which was inside all three places,” she told the Post.
Bringing some reassurance, Lande said, is the “that the Egyptian intelligence and security are very, very strongly vigilant of every Palestinian, specifically those who were in Israeli prisons because they obviously committed some kind of terror act…They are very, very vigilant. They’re wary of the presence of any Palestinians in the country, and I have little doubt that they will be monitoring every step.”
Despite agreeing to accept the released Palestinian prisoners, Lande said she was “not even sure that they will not return them” to the Gaza Strip, out of sheer desire to protect Egyptian territory from their influence and potential actions.
Govrin said he believed that Egyptian authorities were likely maintaining a close eye on the released prisoners, aware that they may try to contact members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic groups that threaten the current rule.
As the “de facto landlords” of Gaza until 1967, when Israel obtained the land after being attacked by a coalition of Arab states, leading to the Six-Day War, Cairo is aware of the security risks posed by a radicalized population, Lande explained.
“They did not want it back in 1979 [and] that says a lot,” Lande commented. “Very clearly, they are aware of the potential leakage of instability and the creation of terror cells amid certain parts of the Palestinian population, the potential for radicalization of other populations in the surroundings, such as Egyptian populations, even though Egyptians are [already] indoctrinated with hatred against Israel and Jews but there is again, a vigilance and weariness amongst the Egyptian authorities regarding radicalization, Islamic radicalization, because they know that it will hurt their own regime.”
Despite apparent concerns for the influence of radicalized Palestinians, Lande claimed that Turkish and Qatari influence had already infiltrated the country, which “almost by definition, means radicalization.”
While acutely aware of the threat posed by terrorist organizations in the Palestinian territory, Egypt has frequently criticized Israel throughout the two-year war against Hamas in Gaza. Asked to reflect on the current status of Cairo-Jerusalem ties, Lande said that there has “not been a maintenance of high-level connection between the leaders, and that is key, especially with a country like Egypt.”
“You need to be able to pick up the phone and say, ‘Listen, this is not exactly as it seems’ – this doesn’t exist, and this is a mistake on our part. Of course, it’s also a mistake on Egypt’s part, but I don’t want to completely disregard our role in this situation,” Lande shared.
For Govrin, at the heart of the diplomatic friction is a deep confusion about Jerusalem’s intentions with the Sinai Peninsula and mixed messages sent by the Israeli leadership, making it worse.
“The Egyptian Government suspects that the Israeli government intends to send hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula, which is not true, but the Israeli government has not denied this officially, and we have some ministers in the government who call for that. So the Egyptians are quite puzzled,” Govrin explained.
“They are very much concerned about it… That’s why they reinforce their forces in the Rafah Border Crossing because they are very much concerned that the Palestinians would break the fence and get into their territory without Egyptian approval.”
Govrin highlighted that the sudden unauthorized entry of thousands of Palestinians into the peninsula would be a “huge headache” for Cairo, because they will probably engage one way or another in terrorist activity against Israel from Egyptian territory.”
In addition to fears of terrorism, Cairo would also be obligated to provide the Palestinians with “infrastructure, with education, with water, with employment, whatever is needed for civilians, and they don’t want it… They have enough problems of their own, and they are not interested… that’s why they define or declare that such a move taken by the Israeli government is against the national security of Egypt.”
“That’s where the tension that we have seen [is from],” Govrin concluded.
Less prepared than the Egyptian authorities is Europe, Lande noted, stressing that there was a significant risk that the lack of vetting would allow terrorists to evade detection in the West.
“I think Europe is unprepared, full stop, not for the Palestinians who will leave Egypt, but in general, for what they’ve already welcomed with open arms,” Lande told the Post, noting that thousands of men were entering the UK, not women or children. “Men are being brought in every day. I mean, if I were a UK citizen, that would certainly concern me a lot. Now, granted, it’s not part of the EU, but this is very problematic with other countries. They’ve already started vetting some immigration issues, not all of them. One doesn’t need an Israeli analyst to call that out [a problem] that’s very overt already.”
Lande pointed out that recently, Irish women have begun complaining online about feeling Ireland is unsafe for them. “There’s no love lost in Ireland for Israel at all, [their concerns are] simply about the safety or lack thereof for Irish women in Ireland, given immigration, particularly Muslim immigration, politically incorrect to say that, but it is what it is. Likewise, in Sweden and other countries,” she shared.
Irish authorities made arrests in October after protests erupted over immigration policies, including outside hotels housing asylum seekers. The unrest followed reports of sexual crimes against a 10-year-old girl allegedly involving an asylum seeker, intensifying debate within the country over vetting and public safety.
Feeling unsafe is a situation that Lande can empathize with. While Lande shared that she felt safe in Egypt during her stay from 2003 to 2006, she admitted that it would be a very different experience now.
“As a Jew, as an Israeli, and as a woman,” Lande said that she wouldn’t worry about her personal security.
“I wouldn’t be able to, or I wouldn’t feel at all, at all at all comfortable saying that I’m Jewish on the street. But then again, I don’t feel safe in Brussels either,” she concluded.