Egypt is building a massive miles-wide buffer zone and wall
along its border with southern Gaza, new satellite images show, as fears grow
over Israel’s planned ground offensive in Rafah where more than half of Gaza’s
population is sheltering.
The images show a significant section of Egyptian territory
between a roadway and the Gaza border has been bulldozed.
If the buffer zone — which stretches from the end of the
Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea — is completed, it will completely engulf
the Egyptian-Rafah border crossing complex.
Additional satellite imagery reviewed by CNN shows that
bulldozers arrived on site on February 03, and the initial excavation of the
buffer zone began on February 06. There was a significant uptick in excavation
over the last five days.
Videos released by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights
show construction of the border wall, which they claim is five meters (16 feet)
high.
The organization, a non-governmental human rights group made
up of activists, researchers and journalists, said that two local contractors
told them that it was commissioned by the Egyptian armed forces.
The construction comes as fears grow that the already
horrific humanitarian situation in Gaza will worsen, causing thousands of
deaths and a mass exodus of Palestinians to Egypt’s border.
All eyes are on Rafah, situated along the new buffer zone,
where nearly 1.5 million Palestinians are crammed into a massive tent city.
Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated plans for a military ground offensive in the
southern Gazan city, saying it is Hamas’ “last bastion.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner
told CNN earlier that the military aims to create a plan that evacuates
civilians “out of harm’s way” and differentiates civilians from Hamas
militants. However, it has not yet presented its evacuation plan to the government,
he told CNN.
The city is the last remaining refuge in Gaza for displaced
Palestinians, and panic is soaring as many decide whether to stay or leave
ahead of the planned ground offensive.
Families struggling with shortages of food, water and
medicine are living in tents just meters from the barbed-wire fence separating
them from Egypt. Most have trekked to Rafah after being displaced by the war
elsewhere in Gaza.
Rajaa Musleh, the Gaza representative for the nonprofit
organization MedGlobal, currently based in Rafah, painted a vivid picture of
the situation in the besieged town, saying that health workers who are still
alive “may still be breathing, but we are dying inside.”
“The situation we are enduring in Rafah is horrific and
getting worse every day. We do not have water to drink or food to eat, and our
health care facilities can hardly operate,” Musleh said.
A growing number of countries and international
organizations have called on Israel to avoid a ground operation in what is now
Gaza’s most populated city, with the International Committee of the Red Cross
regional director Fabrizio Carboni saying “countless lives are hanging in the
balance.” The leaders of Australia, Canada and New Zealand warned on Thursday
that such an incursion “would be catastrophic.”
Egypt
has already condemned Israel’s move to push Palestinians southward in the
enclave, suggesting it is part of a plan to expel Gazans and that it would
spell the end of the Palestinian cause. Egypt has now sounded alarms again as
Israel prepares for its military operation in Rafah.
Egypt began boosting its security presence at its border
with Gaza as a precautionary measure ahead of the expected Israeli ground
operation, Egyptian security officials told CNN. As part of its security
buildup, the officials said, Egypt has deployed more troops and machinery in
North Sinai, bordering Gaza.
Checkpoints leading to the Rafah border crossing on the
Egyptian side were also fortified with more soldiers and the areas around the
main road were being prepared for the deployment of tanks and military machinery,
a witness told CNN.
It comes as Netanyahu continues to rail against Egypt for
not closing the Philadelphi Corridor – the strip of land between Egypt and Gaza
and the besieged enclave’s only non-Israeli-controlled border. In a press
briefing on January 13, Netanyahu said that Israel would not consider the war
over until it was closed.
Israel has been accused of constructing its own buffer zone,
but within Gaza, which would effectively shrink the enclave’s borders. UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a February 08 statement that
the IDF had been destroying Gaza buildings that are within a kilometer of the
Israel-Gaza fence, clearing the area with the objective of creating a buffer
zone.
