Reports: New camp in Khan Younis for displaced Palestinians ‘under directives of Egyptian leadership’

A new camp to shelter displaced Palestinians is being constructed in southern Gaza by members of the Palestinian and Egyptian red crescents.

A Palestinian Red Crescent official said the camp was being constructed “by Egypt through the Egyptian Red Crescent,” while reports said it was being established “under directives from the Egyptian political leadership.”

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced by three months of Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. In the first weeks of the aggression, Egyptian authorities strongly decried a scenario in which Israel would displace Palestinians into Egyptian territory in Sinai.

Now, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Egyptian Red Crescent have built a new camp in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, in the southwestern region of Gaza. 

It is  set to host around 300 families during its first phase, mainly medical, ambulance and relief teams working for the Red Crescent, said a Palestinian Red Crescent statement at the end of 2023. During later stages, the camp will be able to offer shelter to thousands of displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza in around 1,000 tents.

“The camp has four phases. We are now in the first phase which is 300 tents with access to water, food, energy and shelter services. Each tent will be provided with electricity as well as relief items for the family during their stay, such as mattresses, blankets, cooking and cleaning tools,” said Abu Aisha, a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent’s Disaster Risk Management Department.

“During the later stages, the camp will have approximately 1,000 tents in this area to shelter homeless Palestinians. A tent takes in between five to seven people. If there are more, family members will be divided into more than one tent,” said Abu Aisha.

Over 85 percent of Gaza’s population has been forcibly displaced since October 7. Many fled to areas in Gaza’s south, including Mawasi, Tal al-Sultan and Rafah. 

Israeli plans to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians over the border and into Egypt were leaked in the first weeks of Israel’s bombardment of the strip. Egyptian officials, including the president, have strongly rejected Palestinians pushed out of their land and into Egypt. Only a small number of Palestinians have been allowed to cross out of Gaza into Egypt through the tightly controlled Rafah border crossing.