Officials acknowledge construction work taking place near Gaza border

Egypt is installing a large, walled-off area near the border with Gaza.

Officials so far have denied that it is intended to host large numbers of Palestinians from the nearby Gaza Strip in the event that they are displaced, a feared outcome of the offensive Israel says it is planning on the city of Rafah, where around 1.4 million people are currently taking shelter.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry repeated on Saturday that displacement would constitute a “red line” for Egypt and a threat to its national security.

“It is not our intention to provide any safe areas or facilities, but necessarily, if this was the situation, we would deal with the humanity that is necessary and we would provide the support to the innocent civilians if that was to take place,” he added.

“This should not be construed as acceptance for an eventuality of this nature,” he said.

Although he added that “Egypt will deal with civilians in a humanitarian way if it is obliged to do so,” at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Shoukry said that reports which have claimed the construction operations are intended to host displaced Palestinians were “completely hypothetical.” “We're always doing maintenance work on our borders, so I think it's jumping to conclusions about what those activities represent.”

North Sinai Governor Mohamed Abel Fadil Shousha said on Saturday night that the site is a logistical area being prepared by the Armed Forces to accommodate aid trucks traveling from Arish International Airport en route to the Gaza Strip. He added that it contains parking sites, storehouses and administrative offices, and should lessen congestion for drivers in Arish and facilitate the work of the Egyptian Red Crescent.

Prior to Shousha’s comment, videos published by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights showed bulldozers clearing land and walls being erected south of the Rafah border crossing. International outlets including Reuters cited unnamed security sources who claimed that the area was being prepared as a contingency step in case displacement of Palestinians were to happen. The Washington Post used satellite imagery analysis to show that an area of the buffer zone which separates Gaza from North Sinai had been cleared over recent weeks. 

In a television appearance on Saturday night, Nasser Military Academy Advisor General Hisham al-Halaby denied that the area is for Palestinians and said that “all possible scenarios” are being prepared for by the government, even that of Egypt being “forced” to open the gates for Palestinians in the case of an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah. 

State Information Services Diaa Rashwan also denied on Friday that units are being built to shelter Palestinians during an interview on the Friday evening edition of Amr Adib’s news show.