A desert island closed by a wall: Egypt is preparing for the Palestinian exodus
TO February, on the order of the Egyptian Armed Forces, an area of 16 Square kilometers along the border with Gaza has been flattened. In progress also the construction of a concrete barrier. Cairo denies, but the fear is that the country prepares the arrival of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians.
From the concrete cages along the wall that separates Gaza from Egypt two Egyptian soldiers sign that they do not take photos of work means. To the Rafah pass, next to the entrance for humanitarian trucks, there is one scraper. Other means are glimpsed in the nearby fields.
As soon as One kilometer south of the pass, in early February an entire disappeared Agricultural area: an imperfect rectangle, four kilometers for four, for a total of 16 square km, at the border. It is as if the cut in two: one piece runs along the extreme south of Gaza, another piece along the Israeli territory.
The images, available thanks to Copernicus, sew three worlds together Antithetics: the semidessert Sinai, militarized for a decade of Al-Sisi regime; the south of Israel, dowels of fields
grown and Kibbutz, each of a different green; and Gaza, confused dots of gray, urban agglomerations and rubble.
That flattened was not there. Appeared a month ago, the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. On February 14, he reported to works for the construction of an area isolated from a wall, « Between the Rafah's pass and that of Kerem Shalom to the east and between the villages of Qoz ABO Raad and El-Masora to the west », « for the reception of Palestinian refugees in the case of a mass exodus ».
TO realize are sources within the companies engaged in the works, commissioned by Abnaa Sinai for Construction & Amp; Building, company which would have received the contract directly from the construction authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces.
TO Dissure the 16 square km of the bare land will be a concrete wall seven meters high, with strengthened safety, the same one that is already seen In the north Sinai: from October more checkpoints, more soldiers.
Il Wall Street Journal cites Egyptian sources: the buffer area could host 100 thousand people. Probably many more: Rafah develops on 64 square km And today displaced people hosts 1.5 million.
The Egyptian area on the border with Gaza on January 5, before the works (ESA/Copernicus/Sentinel-2).
The 16 km² area in Egypt, on the border with Gaza, photographed by the satellite on February 29, after the works.
Available, to want to predict it, there is also New Rafah, the city Ghost: empty buildings, 10 thousand apartments for families Egyptian hunted by old Rafah that Al-Sisi has emptied with blows of evictions and bulldozers. The buildings meet along the road, in half the desert.
To the I pass the officials present tell us that no, those works and those bulldozer serve to expand the roads to improve the flow of Aid at the entrance to Gaza and that the esplanade area will serve by humanitarian hub To store help, host drivers, manage logistics. A project, however, of which humanitarian organizations and have never heard speak.
The President Al-Sisi has always denied, since it started The offensive by the Israeli land in late October, which pushed south The vast majority of the Gazawi: Egypt will not take charge of the Palestinian refugees, of a second Nakba 75 years after the first.
Al-Sisi repeated him on Sunday to the Prime Minister Meloni and the President of the EU Commission Von der Leyen: « Egypt rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians in its lands ».
That flattened says more: that Cairo prepares " At the Worst Case Scenario, to the worst scenario of a mass expulsion from Gaza », The words used by an Italian diplomatic source.
The February 22 The International Monetary Fund, which with the regime Egyptian has been engaged for years in an arm wrestling on loans in change of reforms tears and blood for a people already in misery, had spoken of a " very large support package »To face the economic challenges starting from the pressures that come from Gaza.
Three days later, on 25, ad Arabic , The director of the FMI department for the Middle East, Jihad Azour, he thought it was better to specify: there would be no links between The increase in the loan and the Israeli offensive threatened on Rafah.
THE Palestinians, for their part, insist: we don't leave. From the Cairo ce Basel Sourani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights repeats this: « Despite The illegal orders of Israeli evacuation, bombs and hunger, 400 thousand Palestinians managed to stay in the north. There are thousands of people Today in Egypt, but there are many more inside Gaza ».
About 15 thousand the Gazawi entered in recent months in Egyptian territory, Very few: go out is a lottery, and you pay dearly, $ 5,000 a head.
It is true, however, that Gaza is no longer there: " 70% of infrastructure and houses are destroyed »Says Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for UNRWA in Gaza. An unlivable place but he too is said to be sure: " Making them A place unsuitable for life can transfer 2-300 thousand people, but neither Two million would remain who will not agree to leave ».
* and the poster