Israeli minister warns Egypt would lose Sinai if it attacked Israel

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Egypt would lose the Sinai Peninsula if it attacked Israel, according to the report.

“What would make Egypt not attack us? The understanding that if they attack us, there will be no Sinai at least,” Smotrich said in a video interview from his home on Monday.

He added that such a scenario “will not happen again.” Egyptian authorities had not immediately commented on his remarks.

The comments came on the eve of Egypt’s commemoration of the 1973 war, which paved the way for the eventual return of the Sinai Peninsula after years of Israeli occupation.

Earlier on Monday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the armed forces remained ready to defend Egypt, its resources and its national security “at all times and under any circumstances.”

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in Washington in March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The agreement ended the state of war between the two countries and provided for Israel’s withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

The treaty has remained the foundation of formal relations between Egypt and Israel for decades.