Egypt army expanding Gaza buffer zone depth to 1 kilometer
Iran Press TV
Thu Jan 8, 2015 3:54PM
The Egyptian military is reportedly set to demolish over 1,200 homes to double the width of a buffer zone constructed along the border with the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip.
According to Egyptian army sources, the military has begun operations to increase the size of the existing 500-meter buffer zone along the Gazan border to a full kilometer.
The sources added that the army operations will include the destruction of some 1,220 houses and the eviction of residents in the border area.
The report comes a day after the governor of Egypt's North Sinai, General Abdel-Fattah Harhour, said the country's officials should completely demolish the Egyptian border city of Rafah to deepen the buffer zone near Gaza.
Last November, the Egyptian army destroyed more than 800 homes in the city of Rafah on the border with Gaza to set up the 13-kilometer long and 500-meter wide buffer zone there. About 1,100 residents in the area were displaced in the operations.
The forced evacuations have angered the residents of Egypt's border areas.
The Cairo authorities decided to create the buffer zone after deadly attacks in the restive Sinai Peninsula that targeted more than 30 Egyptian soldiers on October 24, 2014.
The Egyptian military has also stepped up its crackdown on the tunnels into Gaza since it ousted the country's first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013.
This is while the tunnels are the only lifeline for Gazans living under the Israeli siege. Palestinians use the tunnels to bring essential supplies, such as foodstuff, cooking gas, medicines, petrol, and livestock, into the impoverished land.
MKA/HMV/SS
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