Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak denied Monday reports from his own government that about 5,000 Egyptian security police had been deployed along the Gaza Strip border. "This is totally baseless," Mubarak told a group of Egyptian lawmakers of his ruling National Democratic Party. Government officials and the state-run Middle East News Agency had reported Sunday that the police were dispatched to protect Egyptians living close to Gaza following newspaper reports that Israeli aircraft might bomb the border area in a bid to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons.