JERUSALEM – The discovery of several massive, newly-constructed underground complexes in Egypt, believed to be for military use, has dramatically escalated tensions with Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally accusing Cairo of “serious violations” of the landmark 1979 peace treaty.
The complexes, built into mountain slopes in the Northern Sinai and near Egypt’s New Administrative Capital, were uncovered by open-source intelligence (OSINT) researchers analyzing recent satellite imagery. The findings, initially shared on the social media platform X by analyst Dinlas, have provided a stark visual for what Israeli officials are calling a worrying and undeclared Egyptian military expansion.
One of the sprawling facilities is strategically located just 70 kilometers from Cairo, situated between the capital and the city of Suez. The second, and more contentious, complex lies deep in the Sinai Peninsula, an area demilitarized by the peace accords, and is surrounded by a triangle of Egyptian airbases.
The revelations prompted a direct confrontation during a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday, where Prime Minister Netanyahu presented U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio with a dossier outlining Israeli intelligence concerns.
According to two Israeli officials familiar with the meeting, the list detailed Egyptian activities that Israel views as a breach of the Camp David Accords, which the United States guarantees.
“The Egyptians are building military infrastructure, some of which could be used for offensive purposes, in areas where only light armaments are allowed,” one official stated. The dossier reportedly includes evidence of extended runways at Sinai airbases to accommodate modern fighter jets and highlights the new underground facilities.
While the exact purpose of the complexes remains officially unconfirmed, Israeli intelligence assesses that the Sinai facility may be intended for the storage of long-range missiles. However, the officials acknowledged that there is currently no evidence that missiles are actually being stored there. They added that repeated inquiries to Cairo through diplomatic and military channels have not yielded “convincing explanations” for the construction.
The dispute over the Sinai militarization adds another layer of deep mistrust to a relationship already strained by the ongoing war in Gaza. Egypt has heavily fortified its border with Gaza, fearing that the Netanyahu government’s military campaign is a precursor to an attempt to permanently push the Palestinian population into the Sinai Peninsula—a scenario Cairo has declared a threat to its national security.
This bilateral tension is unfolding against a backdrop of shifting regional alliances. In the wake of a recent Israeli airstrike on Doha that targeted high-ranking Hamas leaders, Arab nations are reportedly reconsidering an Egyptian initiative to form a joint defense alliance, dubbed an “Arab NATO.” The proposal, first tabled in 2015, has gained new urgency as regional powers seek to establish a new security framework independent of Western allies.
As Washington attempts to mediate, the satellite images of tunnels burrowing deep into Sinai’s mountains serve as a concrete symbol of the volatile and unpredictable new era gripping the Middle East.
