Two Egyptian sources and a third informed source told Reuters on Friday that Israeli and Egyptian negotiators are holding talks about an electronic monitoring system on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which may allow the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the region if a ceasefire is agreed upon.

The presence of the occupation forces on the border is one of the controversial issues in the negotiations of the exchange deal and ceasefire because the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and Egypt, which is mediating in the talks, oppose Israel keeping its forces there.

Israel demands a monitoring system that would prevent smuggling between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The informed source told Reuters that the discussions revolve “primarily around sensors that will be placed on the Egyptian side of the Philadelphia axis.”

He added that the purpose of this is to monitor the tunnels and discover means of smuggling weapons into the Strip, according to what was reported by Al Jazeera.

In response to a question about whether this matter is important to the ceasefire agreement because it means that it will not be necessary for the presence of Israeli soldiers on the Philadelphia axis, the source stressed the importance of the matter to the agreement.

The two Egyptian security sources told Reuters that Israeli negotiators talked about a high-tech surveillance system.

They added that Egypt does not oppose this if the United States supports it and bears its costs, and they said that Cairo will not agree to anything that would change the arrangements on its borders with Israel stipulated in the peace treaty between them.

It is noteworthy that, with the mediation of Qatar, Egypt and the United States, which provides absolute support to Israel, the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel have been conducting faltering indirect negotiations for months to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners and stop the devastating Israeli war on the Strip, which has entered its tenth month.