Egypt and Gaza Strip are separated by an insurmountable security barrier

The Egypt-Palestine border now has a huge defense barrier

Following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year, tensions in the region escalated significantly, leading to military action that continues to this day. For its part, Egypt, which shares a border with the Gaza Strip, fearful of the huge influx of Palestinians fleeing the war, has begun to fortify the border even more^[1].

Clearing of the area around the border began in early February and reinforced sections of the wall are being built around it.

On 14 February, satellite images showed about 0.8 km of the wall, but since then more than 4 km have been recorded. This section of the border is also fortified with several floors of barbed wire, stone fortifications and blockades.

Satellite imagery shows that the border continues to be secured, with construction vehicles positioned along the road next to the cleared border area.

Photographs and videos published by Sinai Foundation for Human Rights members also show that construction work is ongoing. Other footage shows the construction of a fence with seven-metre-high walls in the area. The Foundation's report also quotes an informed source as saying that the construction is being carried out in order to accommodate refugees from the Gaza Strip in the event of a mass exodus.

The Wall Street Journal has previously confirmed reports by Egyptian officials and security analysts that a 20.7-square-kilometre enclosure is under construction, with a capacity to accommodate more than 100,000 people^[2].

Egypt tries to remain neutral and stays out of the war

Since the start of the new phase of the Palestinian-Israeli war, Egypt has consistently stated that it has no intention of opening its borders to Palestinian refugees. Egypt has maintained this position partly because it does not want to appear to be complicit in large-scale Palestinian displacement but also for economic and security reasons.

In addition, Egyptian officials have repeatedly expressed concern that Israel's actions could lead to millions of Palestinians attempting to flee across the border and into the Sinai Peninsula.

However, there are reports that individuals linked to the Egyptian State have profited from Palestinians desperate to flee^[3].

Palestinians have told the international media that they have each paid USD 10 000 to a network linked to the Egyptian authorities in order to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.

As for construction work on the border, Mohammed Shousha, Governor of Egypt's North Sinai Province, said that the purpose of the activities on the border is to take stock of houses destroyed during Egypt's previous military campaign against the Islamic State group. Shousha added that Egypt's position was not to encourage the forced transfer of Gaza's population to Egypt.

United Nations (UN) officials have been talking for some time about an imminent mass evacuation, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has warned that a massive flow of refugees from Rafah to Egypt would be "a disaster for the Palestinians, a disaster for Egypt and a disaster for the future of a possible peace".

The Egyptian-Palestinian border is the epicenter of constant tensions

The 12 km long border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is the Egyptian-Palestinian border. A buffer zone of about 14 km is established along the border.

The Rafah crossing is the only crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It is located next to the international border, which was confirmed by the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty^[4].

The Rafah crossing is restricted to the movement of persons only, and therefore, the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is only open to the movement of persons and not goods. All goods traffic has to pass through Israel, usually through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Gaza-Israel border

1 October 1906. The Ottoman and British governments agreed on a border between Ottoman-ruled Palestine and British-ruled Egypt, running from Taba to Rafah. Although Palestine was also under British control after the First World War, the Egyptian-Palestinian border was maintained in order to control the movement of the local Bedouin. Since 1948, the Gaza Strip has been occupied by an independent Egypt, leaving the border as an administrative boundary without border controls.

In 1967, Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt in the Six-Day War. In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty that returned the Sinai Peninsula, which borders the Gaza Strip, to Egyptian control. Under this agreement, a 100 m wide strip of land, the Philadelphia Road, was established as a buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, restored in the Peace Agreement, was through the town of Rafah^[5].

After the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982, Rafah was divided into an Egyptian and a Palestinian section, separating families separated by barbed wire barriers.

In the spring, Israeli forces took control of the buffer zone along the Gaza-Egyptian border, giving Israel effective authority over the entire land border of the Palestinian Territory.

Hostilities between Palestine and Israel continue and could spread throughout the region

Hostilities intensified again last year when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, killing 1 195 people, according to official Israeli figures. Israel launched a military response which, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, killed at least 37 626 people.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, has recently expressed concern about the possible spill-over of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip into Lebanon and warned that this is a potentially apocalyptic scenario^[6].

Griffiths told reporters that he considered Lebanon to be a "hot spot" and drew particular attention to the southern part of the country.

"It is potentially apocalyptic", the official argued, warning that a war involving Lebanon "would involve Syria (...) would involve others".

This Gaza war, he said, has shown "a new level of tragedy and cruelty" and now "we are all worried that this could be just the beginning".