Fri 16 February 2024:
Satellite images from February 15 show the construction of a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border.
Egypt has vehemently rejected the forced displacement of Palestinians into its territory, and has denied it’s preparing for an influx of Palestinians pushed into the Sinai peninsula if an anticipated Israeli assault on Rafah happens.
But the Washington Post reported Cairo appears to be “preparing for such a scenario”. The newspaper said it verified video showing Egypt began clearing a “rectangular plot of land” and building a wall around its perimeter to house displaced Palestinians.
Why is Egypt against Israel’s planned Rafah offensive?
Israel’s planned ground assault on Rafah threatens to intensify pressure on displaced Palestinians to move into Egypt’s Sinai – a development Egyptian officials have declared would cross a red line.
The roughly 1.4 million internally displaced Palestinians who have been squeezed into 64sq-km (25sq-mile) Rafah have nowhere to go amid shortages of food, water and medicine. NGOs, governments and other members of the international community have objected to the planned Israeli offensive, fearing large numbers of civilian casualties. Some 100 people, including 42 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since Sunday night.
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7, calls by senior Israeli officials for the Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza – a euphemism for their forced displacement – have alarmed Egyptians who do not want a refugee exodus across the border. Egypt, as well as several Arab countries, fear that Israel will not allow displaced Palestinians to return to Gaza.
More than 750,000 Palestinians, who were driven from their homes in the 1948 ethnical cleansing – called the Nakba, or catastrophe, by Palestinians – during the creation of the state of Israel, have not been allowed to return. Israel has consistently opposed the right of return to Palestinians driven out of what is now Israel during the Nakba.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion in December that he wanted control of the Philadelphi Corridor – a narrow corridor that separates Egypt from Gaza – has also angered Egyptians. Diaa Rashwan, the State Information Service chief said at the time that the “occupation” of the 14-kilometre (about 8.7 miles) long and 100-metre-wide (328-foot-wide) corridor would be a breach of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
Egypt has controlled the strip of land since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
Cairo has tightened border security, reportedly moving tanks and armoured personnel carriers close to the border to halt any potential spillover from an Israeli land assault.
Both countries are required by the 1979 deal not to boost their military presence in border areas without prior agreement. Al Jazeera has not been able to confirm if Cairo coordinated its military movement with Tel Aviv.
Under the leadership of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, ties with Israel have increasingly focused on economic and energy relations at a time when Cairo is tackling a severe economic crisis.
Since el-Sisi took power in a 2013 coup, Egypt, as part of its security coordination with Israel, has destroyed hundreds of tunnels that Palestinians used to smuggle goods – and at times, weapons – past the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Cairo has also destroyed thousands of buildings to create a buffer zone between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt has cooperated with Israel in the 17-year blockade of Gaza.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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