TEL AVIV, November 1. /TASS/. Egypt has deployed tanks and other armored vehicles on its territory in the area of the Rafah border crossing near the Gaza Strip, The Times of Israel reported.

The newspaper published photos showing dozens of armored vehicles along the border with the Gaza Strip. According to the newspaper, these measures are related to the fact that Egypt, fearing an influx of tens of thousands of refugees due to the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has so far kept the border closed, allowing only trucks with humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

The Times of Israel recalls that a 1979 peace treaty limits the number of troops Egypt can keep in the Sinai Peninsula, but Israel has allowed them to increase in the past to fight Islamist insurgents in the region.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.