JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared the border area with Egypt a closed military zone, citing security concerns, local media reported on Thursday.

“We are declaring war. Anyone who enters the restricted area will be harmed,” Katz said during a discussion late Wednesday, as cited by the public broadcaster KAN.

Army Radio said the defense minister agreed with the Shin Bet Chief, David Zinni, to classify alleged attempts to smuggle weapons through the border with Egypt as a “terrorist threat” to help the security services "to use appropriate tools to combat it."

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the defense minister ordered “to hit any unauthorized entity that infiltrates the forbidden area.”

The daily claimed that the decision came after what it called “massive weapons smuggling operations” along the border.

There was no immediate comment from Egyptian authorities on the Israeli claims.

In recent months, the Israeli army has repeatedly claimed to have thwarted weapon smuggling attempts via drones, without specifying the parties behind these alleged operations.

The Israeli army has killed nearly 69,000 Palestinians and injured over 170,000 others in a brutal offensive in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The assault came to a halt under a ceasefire agreement that took effect on Oct. 10.