Egypt building walled enclosure in Sinai for Rafah refugees, photos suggest [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Egypt building walled enclosure in Sinai for Rafah refugees, photos suggest

Monitoring group releases evidence of work that appears intended to house Palestinians in event of Israeli assault on city

Ruth Michaelson
Fri 16 Feb 2024 16.24 GMT
First published on Fri 16 Feb 2024 13.37 GMT

Egypt has begun building an enclosed area ringed with high concrete walls along its border with Gaza that appears intended to house Palestinians fleeing a threatened Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah.

Photos and videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR), a monitoring group, show workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.

The videos, dated 15 February, gave little indication of authorities installing water or other infrastructure. Satellite imagery released by Planet Labs on the same day shows cleared strips of land adjacent to the Gaza border.

SFHR said on social media that the videos showed efforts to “establish an isolated area surrounded by walls on the border with the Gaza Strip, with the aim of receiving refugees in the event of a mass exodus”.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/egypt-building-walled-enclosure-in-sinai-for-rafah-refugees-videos-suggest