Egypt’s sudden cancellation of its natural gas treaty with Israel is a flagrant violation of the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, according to Israeli officials.

Egypt claims that Israel is in “violation of contractual agreements” of the 2005 Egypt-Israel gas deal, a pact decried by leaders of the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt.

Since the beginning of the uprising on January 25, 2011, the pipelines supplying gas to Israel have been sabotaged 14 times.

Israel called the Egyptian decision “unlawful and in bad faith”, and a failure to meet obligations. Egypt, said Israel is four months in arrears on payment, a charge Israel denies.

The Ministry of Education has cancelled all school trips south of Highway 12 which runs along the Israel-Egypt border. The IDF believes there is a strong possibility of a terror attack in that area emanating from the Sinai.

The IDF is concerned of either a Palestinian or Egyptian attack with the objective of kidnapping or killing Israelis hiking the area, with the ultimate goal of harming what’s left of Israeli-Egyptian relations.

On August 18^th a terror attack from the Sinai killed 8 Israelis.

Due to the growing terror threat from Egypt, the IDF has established a new combat brigade in the Eilat area and is working to complete the fence dividing the two countries.

School trips will still continue with the city of Eilat itself.