Egypt is building a fortified buffer zone near its border with the Gaza Strip as fears grow of an imminent Israeli ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, which could displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians across the border, according to satellite images and media reports.
Images from the site in the Sinai desert and satellite photos show that an area that could provide basic shelter for tens of thousands of Palestinians is being built with concrete walls erected on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing , the only non-Israeli. controlled passage to and from Gaza.
The new complex is part of contingency plans in case large numbers of Palestinians manage to enter Egypt and could accommodate more than 100,000 people, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing Egyptian officials.
It is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlement. A large number of tents were delivered to the site, the report said.
Videos taken by the United Kingdom-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights show trucks and bulldozers clearing debris from an area of about 8 square miles (21 square kilometers), according to the Washington Post, which obtained satellite images showing 2 square miles (5 km2). ) was authorized between February 6 and Wednesday.
Mohamed Abdelfadil Shousha, the governor of North Sinai, the Egyptian governorate that borders Gaza and Israel, reportedly denied that Egypt would build a refugee camp along the border in the event of an exodus of Palestinians forced by the Israeli army.
The Sinai Foundation, an activist organization that has a monitoring team in North Sinai, said in a report this week that the closed area will be surrounded by 7-meter-high cement walls.
Egypt to create high security closed zone to receive Palestinian refugees from Gaza
The Sinai Foundation has obtained information from a relevant source indicating that the ongoing construction works in East Sinai aim to create a… pic.twitter.com/8Xe1H7t9O0
– Sinai for Human Rights (@Sinaifhr) February 14, 2024
The United Nations high commissioner for refugees said Friday that a mass movement of people from Rafah to Egypt’s Sinai would be a disaster for Palestinians and prospects for peace in the Middle East.
“It would be a disaster for the Palestinians… a disaster for Egypt and a disaster for the future of peace,” Filippo Grandi told Reuters news agency of Israel’s planned ground invasion of Rafah .
Asked if Egyptian authorities had contacted UNHCR about possible contingency plans, he replied: “The Egyptians have said that people should receive assistance inside Gaza and we are working on that.” . »
Israel has said it wants to seize the Philadelphia Corridor, the fortified border area between Gaza and Egypt, to secure it. Egypt has threatened that this would jeopardize the peace treaty signed by the two countries four decades ago.
Cairo stressed that it did not want Palestinians to be displaced from their lands by Israel, comparing such a scenario to the 1948 Nakba, the forced displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in the war that led to the creation of Israel.
Tel Aviv’s insistence on continuing its planned attack on Rafah despite international pressure has remained unwavering, even though the area is home to 1.4 million Palestinians, the vast majority of whom have been forcibly displaced – sometimes repeatedly – by the bombings and Israeli ground operations. .
Displaced Palestinians in Rafah are suffering a lack of shelter, food, water and medicine, and the United Nations and human rights groups have warned of a humanitarian disaster in the besieged enclave worsens quickly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the army to work on an evacuation plan for more than half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents now crowded into Rafah, but did not provide no detailed measurements.
He suggested that Palestinians could be sent to areas north of Rafah that the Israeli army has already cleared through a ground invasion backed by bombing.
Avi Dichter, Israel’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, suggested areas west of Rafah and the bombed al-Mawasi refugee camp near the Mediterranean coast, where many are already sheltering.
But UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Thursday it would be an “illusion” to believe Gaza residents could be evacuated to a safe place. He also said it would be “a kind of Egyptian nightmare” if Palestinians were forced into Egypt.
The United States and a number of Israel’s other key allies have said they oppose a ground attack on Rafah, with some warning it would be “catastrophic.”
US President Joe Biden “has made clear that we do not support the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,” a US State Department spokesperson said on Friday, as cited by Reuters. “The United States does not fund camps in Egypt for displaced Palestinians. »
Israel withdrew from US- and Arab-mediated negotiations with Hamas on Wednesday because it said the Palestinian armed group had “ridiculous demands” that include Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.
Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet continued to push for “total victory,” with the prime minister calling Rafah Hamas’ “last bastion.”
For weeks, the heaviest fighting in the Gaza Strip has taken place in Khan Younis, also located in southern Gaza, with the Israeli army saying its attacks are aimed at destroying Hamas battalions in the area.
Using bombings, sniper fire and drones, the Israeli army has also for weeks besieged Nasser Hospital, the region’s largest medical facility, which houses hundreds of patients and staff and serves shelter for thousands of displaced Palestinians.
Dr. Nahed Abu Taima, director of the hospital, told Tel Aviv Tribune on Friday that Israeli forces were rounding up patients and civilians and had cut off electricity to the medical complex.
“We are helpless, unable to provide any form of medical assistance to the patients inside the hospital or to the victims who are flocking into the hospital every minute,” he said.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,775 Palestinians and injured 68,552 since October 7, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Several thousand others are missing, probably buried under rubble.
