Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the meeting that the dramatic increase in arms smuggling along the Gaza-Egyptian border would force Israel to reopen last November's US-brokered Rafah understandings that led to the full IDF pullout from the area. Olmert told the cabinet, which met this week on Wednesday rather than Sunday because of Rosh Hashana, that he would discuss the matter with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to arrive here for a visit next week. The prime minister said there had been a substantial increase in arms smuggling from Sinai, and it now included the types of weaponry - antitank and antiaircraft missiles - that could limit Israel's military maneuverability in Gaza. Olmert said the Defense Ministry was drawing up proposals on how to deal with the situation, and that these proposals would be brought to the cabinet in the near future.
The Rafah understandings, hammered out by Rice last November, established a border crossing at Rafah that is run by the Palestinians and the Egyptians, but which is monitored by the EU. This crossing, together with an Egyptian-Israeli military protocol that was drawn up three months earlier and allowed for an enhanced Egyptian security presence in Egypt to fight the smuggling, enabled the IDF withdrawal last September from the Philadelphi corridor that separates Egypt from Gaza.