The Egyptian Army on Wednesday began demolishing houses along its border with Gaza in the city of Rafah, following through on a plan to establish a buffer zone with the Gaza strip.
The demolition of some 800 houses has displaced more than 10,000 people along the border, in an effort to build the zone that officials hope will help prevent the influx of terrorists and weapons from crossing into Egypt.
The forced evacuation orders were handed out on Tuesday as part of a sweeping security response by the Egyptian government in response to months of deadly attacks carried out by terrorists from or supplied by forces in Gaza.
The attacks have focused mainly on killing Egyptian security personnel in the Sinai Peninsula. The most devastating attack came last Friday in which 31 soldiers were killed.
The Egyptian government, led by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, has resorted to these harsh counterinsurgency tactics of destroying “terrorist hotbeds,” as a government spokesman put it, highlighting the difficulties that the military has faced in eliminating the terrorists.
The government issued one day’s notice to residents, telling them to pack up and leave their homes. Residents were also notified that they would be compensated for their confiscated property if they cooperated.
A decree signed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb stated, “If any resident resists leaving the area in a cordial manner, their property…will be forcibly seized,” Reuters reported.
Residents have been offered three compensation packages: money in exchange for their property, an apartment in a nearby village, or a plot of land on which to build.
The governor of the increasingly unstable Northern Sinai region, Gen. Abdel Fattah Harhour, said that on top of the above listed compensation, each displaced family is due to receive 900 Egyptian pounds ($125) to help pay for three months’ rent elsewhere, while compensation for lost property is being calculated.
Residents were warned on Tuesday that if they refuse, they would lose their compensation and their house would be blown-up with whatever or whomever was inside it.
Egyptian officials said that the buffer zone would extend the length of the border with the Gaza, and reach about 500 yards into Egyptian territory.
Egyptian officials have frequently blamed Palestinian terrorists for attacks in Egypt, charges that partially reflect the government’s deep antipathy toward Hamas, the ruling terror organization in Gaza. Hamas leaders are close allies of former and now jailed Egyptian prime minister Mohammed Morsi.
On Wednesday, families traveled with truckloads of furniture away from the border. “There is confusion — difficulty in finding moving trucks, limited time, no places ready as alternatives to move into,” a local journalist reported.
A local citizen, Mahmoud al-Akhrasy, whose house sits some 100 feet outside the buffer zone, said that officials had quickly and efficiently reimbursed the residents who had decided to leave.
He also said that many of those who were evicted seemed resigned to their fate. “They say, it’s a matter of national security, so we have to accept it. What can we do?”
This is the second time that countries bordering the Gaza strip have pulled out their own residents from the area and demolished their houses. The first instance occurred in 2005 when Israel, of its own volition, decided to evacuate all 8,600 Jewish residents from the Gaza Strip.
Shortly thereafter, the security situation in Gaza deteriorated when Hamas took control of the Strip in 2007, precipitating three armed conflicts with Israel and perpetrating numerous terror attacks against Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula.
