CAIRO — The liberation of seven kidnapped Egyptian soldiers on May 22 in northern Sinai raised several questions about the security vacuum along the Egyptian border with Israel and Palestine.

The Egyptian border with Israel is nearly 256 kilometers long (159 miles) — 270 km (168 miles), if its border with Gaza is included. There was a heavy presence of Egyptian troops and aircraft in Sinai before the soldiers were released, despite the Camp David Accords and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty signed in 1979 stipulating that no Egyptian soldiers are allowed within 20 km to 40 km of the Sinai-Israel border, while 750 Egyptian police officers are allowed.

Several Egyptian parties had already been calling for the treaty’s terms to be reviewed, including this August 2012 statement by the Muslim Brotherhood on the “need to reconsider the Camp David Accords.”

The Brotherhood’s deputy leader, Rashad al-Bayoumi, reiterated this call in an interview a fortnight ago with Al-Monitor, stressing that the “Muslim Brotherhood rejects the Camp David Accords” but “cannot cancel it with a stroke of a pen.” Saad Amara, head of the Arab Affairs and National Security Committee in the Brotherhood’s Shura Council, echoed that point of view after the latest security incident in the Sinai, stating that the Camp David Accords are partly responsible for the kidnappings and should therefore be reviewed.