EGYPT could suspend its peace treaty with Israel if Israeli forces are sent into the densely populated town of Rafah on the Gaza Strip’s southern border, two Egyptian officials and the European Union’s foreign policy chief said today.

The threat to freeze the 1978 Camp David Accords followed a claim by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that sending troops into Rafah was necessary to win the four-month war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Egyptian officials also warned that fighting there could force the closure of the besieged territory’s main route for deliveries of food aid and medical supplies.