Middle East crisis: Egypt is building a wall near the Gaza border, but won't say why
A wall is being built in the desert of Egypt, near the border of the war-torn Gaza Strip, but no one talks about it much.
Satellite images, photos and video analyzed by The New York Times show a large swath of land being bulldozed and the wall being built in the buffer zone between Egypt and Rafah, the southern Gaza city flooded with more than a million displaced Palestinians , and that the Israeli forces are ready to invade.
The satellite images clearly show newly classified land south of the Rafah crossing. Analysis of the satellite images showed that the work started around February 5.
But the Egyptian government, which has watched with concern as Gazans were displaced by the war between Israel and the Hamas crowd in Rafah, has refused to discuss the new construction. A government spokesman would only refer to government statements in recent weeks emphasizing the strengthening of the border.
It was not clear whether the structure was intended to stop Gazans crossing the border, but if it were used that way it would represent a major reversal of the Egyptian position.
A contractor and an engineer interviewed by The Times and provided photos said they had been ordered by the Egyptian army to build a five-meter-high concrete wall – about 5 meters – to divide a plot of land five square kilometers. On the website. They said they started work on February 5 and started work on the wall two days ago.
The contractor and engineer spoke on condition of anonymity and said they feared reprisals. Egyptian authorities heavily restrict information coming out of the border area.
Since October, when a Hamas-led attack on Israel led to massive Israeli military retaliation in Gaza, Egypt has repeatedly rejected any suggestion that it would accept some Gazans who fled air and ground attacks into areas near the border in Rafah. Egyptian officials fear that an influx of refugees would pose a security risk, and many Palestinians suspect that Israel may not allow people leaving Gaza to return once the war is over.
In recent weeks, uprooted Gazans have huddled in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, struggling to survive in tents and makeshift shelters with scant access to food and other essential supplies, aid workers say. A Gazan official in Rafah, Ahmed al-Soufi, estimated that there were more than 100,000 displaced Palestinians in camps pressed against the border.
At a meeting convened in Egypt on Thursday, Martin Griffiths, the United Nations' top aid chief, said that “the possibility of a spillover, a kind of Egyptian nightmare, is one that is right before our eyes.”
Like Israel, Egypt has closed its borders with Gaza and added fortifications to its border area in recent months.
A day after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the governorate of North Sinai – where the work captured in the satellite images takes place – said in a statement that the governor had held an emergency meeting with senior local officials to “study the capacities of schools, housing units and vacant land that could be used as shelters if necessary.”
But on Thursday, North Sinai's deputy governor, Major General Hisham el-Khouly, said he was not aware of any new construction. And North Sinai Governor Maj. Gen. Mohamed Shousha did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Ahmed Ezzat, head of emergency operations at the Egyptian Red Crescent, which coordinates Gaza-related humanitarian aid at the border, said he had never heard of the project.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed reporting from Geneva, and Adam Ragon from Jerusalem.