2024-02-17 03:03:19
Egypt to build refugee camp on Gaza border in preparation for ceasefire talks breaking down
February 17, 2024 12:3
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[AFP = Current Affairs]Egypt is building a walled camp near its border with the Gaza Strip to accommodate refugees from Gaza. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 16th. Egyptian NGOs have made similar reports.
According to WSJ, it has an area of 21 square kilometers and can accommodate more than 100,000 people. The move is part of a “contingency plan” in case ceasefire negotiations in Cairo fail.
Egyptian NGO Sinai Foundation for Human Rights also said in a report published this week that facilities are being built to accommodate Palestinian refugees in the event of a “mass exodus.”
Satellite images taken on Saturday of a construction site in northern Sinai Peninsula show heavy equipment being used to build a wall along the border between Egypt and Gaza. If you compare it with the satellite photo taken on the 10th, you can see that the land has been leveled. The construction site is heavily guarded and journalists are prohibited from entering.
The NGO said two construction contractors had been asked to build an area surrounded by a “seven meter high wall”.
The refugee camp is said to be built on the rubble of homes destroyed during the past decade’s civil war with Islamic extremists in northern Sinai.
Meanwhile, Israel, which is poised to invade Rafah in the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, has insisted it has no plans to transfer civilians to the refugee camp.
Mohamed Shousha, the governor of Egypt’s North Sinai governorate, also denied reports on the 15th that his country was preparing an “isolation zone in Sinai” to accommodate displaced people. He explained that the construction work is to provide appropriate compensation to the owners of their houses, which were destroyed in the recent unrest, according to the damage caused.
[Translation Edit]AFPBB News
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