Police evict residents as demolitions resume in Arish despite unfulfilled govt promise of alternative housing

Police units ordered residents to evacuate as the North Sinai governorate began to demolish homes on Monday in areas of Arish slated for development, according to two residents who spoke to Mada Masr. “They came in with forces as if they were liberating Jerusalem,” one of them said.

The area has been earmarked for clearance by the governorate for years as part of a project to expand Arish Port. But Transport Minister Kamel al-Wazir previously promised that none of the residents would be evicted before they were relocated to housing of an equivalent standard. Residents are calling on authorities to follow through.

Police entered two residential areas, phases four and five of the port’s development plan, in the western Raysa neighborhood of Arish, the residents said. 

They then cordoned off a residential block near the old port street and ordered its residents to evacuate, after which demolition crews began tearing down their homes, the sources continued. 

Land in the neighborhood and elsewhere near Arish Port — around 371 feddans in total — was allocated to the Egyptian Armed Forces for redevelopment in 2019 by presidential decree. A second decree in 2021 expanded the area to 541 feddans.

The plan would cover the entire eastern coastline of Arish — from the old port to the village of Sakaska at the city’s far eastern edge — including the popular Raysa touristic beachfront, home to many villas and apartment buildings. 

Residents who live in the areas marked for phases four and five have staged demonstrations against the plan and reached out repeatedly to relevant authorities in hopes of halting the project and finding an alternative path forward. 

They protested amid an initial phase of surveying properties followed by demolitions carried out by the governorate in 2021 and 2022 in areas to the west of the development zone that primarily targeted clusters of beachfront chalets.

In response, Wazir visited Arish in July 2022 and held a broad meeting with community representatives, one of the sources who attended the meeting said. The minister apologized for what he described as “mistakes” during the earlier demolitions and assured residents that “no one will be moved out of their home unless it's to one similar to it or better.”

Demolition work stopped following the visit for three years, during which a wall was built between the already-cleared zones and the homes in phases four and five. An area of land in Arish was even considered by the Armed Forces Engineering Authority within Arish for the construction of a new residential neighborhood to which those evicted could relocate. Residents were shown architectural plans, but the committee never settled on a final location.

The governorate said in recent weeks that it had received “a very urgent directive to resume evacuations and demolitions as quickly as possible,” the two sources said, noting that the information was conveyed to them at the office of the governorate’s general secretary which called an urgent meeting with the committee of local representatives, of which both are members, in June.

Committee members flagged that they were owed equivalent homes before the demolitions, as per the promise made by Wazir three years ago. They found, however, that the secretary general seemed unaware of the minister’s pledge.

Despite assurances that he would follow up with officials and inform the committee of any updates, the two members said they heard nothing further until demolition crews arrived on Monday.

Residents whose houses are threatened are refusing to leave, citing Wazir’s commitment to them and voicing worry that they won’t be granted fair compensation for their properties if they agree to evacuate.

“The governorate considers compensation figures a military secret — you’re not allowed to know what you’re getting until you hand in your property file and the place is demolished,” said the resident who attended the 2022 meeting with Wazir. 

People have learned, however, that the demolitions are to proceed based on data collected in a 2019 survey of their homes, and that authorities plan to calculate compensation using 2019 market rates. This is despite the fact that it should be possible to calculate fairer compensation based on more precise data gathered by the Armed Forces engineering authority during a more detailed survey conducted in 2022 in the same area, which coincided with Wazir’s visit at the time, the resident said, 

 “Back then, a ton of cement cost LE800 — now it’s LE5,000,” the source said. Residents are not encouraged by what happened to some of those impacted by the earlier demolition phases, who received as little as LE900,000 for fully finished five-story apartment buildings. Others affected during the first phases still haven’t received compensation at all, the source added. 

“We’ve learned from what happened to our neighbors — we’re not leaving our homes. We’ll die in them,” they continued.

In late 2022, then North Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha said that valuation committees had appraised the value of finished residential units at LE3,500 per square meter, promising full disbursement after demolition.

 Affected families, he said, could opt to buy a 100-square-meter apartment for LE350,000 in one of ten residential buildings the governorate was constructing in southern Arish. Although construction has since been completed, the buildings remain uninhabited.