The concrete wall you build Egypt on the Sinai Peninsula, next to the border RibbonThe aim is to counteract a possible wave of Palestinian refugees Rafah. Israel It is besieging this city at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million displaced people have gathered, and could launch a ground attack against it at any time to end the last stronghold of Hamas militia resistance.
This wall surrounds an area of more than 20 square kilometers in the Sinai Desert and is intended to serve as a wall second containment barrier, behind the fences and security of the border itself, facing a flood of refugees from Rafah. If necessary, it could become a gigantic concentration camp for refugees who eventually cross the border to avoid a massacre by the Israeli army.
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Falling back.
The images suggest that construction of the wall began on February 8 and the structure may be completed up to five meters high, according to the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights. The wall follows the Sheikh Zuweid-Rafah highway for 3.5 kilometers west of the Gaza border.
Israeli blackmail of Egypt
According to all evidence, Egypt is thus preparing for the impending Israeli attack on Rafah and bowing to armed blackmail Tel Aviv which would force it to accommodate this avalanche of thousands of refugees, causing a new turn in the Gaza crisis.
Egypt officially refuses to recognize the construction of the retaining wall and insists it will not open its doors to the mass invasion of Palestinians. However, other sources in the Egyptian government told Portal that the possible reception of between 50,000 and 60,000 Palestinian refugees.
Given the massacres carried out by Israel in the rest of the Gaza Strip, this may be the only alternative to total catastrophe. There are already almost 29,000 dead Palestiniansthe vast majority civilians, in the war Israel launched in response to Hamas' October 7 terrorist attacks that killed 1,200 people on Israeli territory.
According to Egyptian officials told the Wall Street Journal, one of the first media outlets to report on the construction of the wall thanks to data from Egyptian and American sources, the complex being built could house up to a hundred thousand refugees. Its size can be checked on satellite photos Maxar Technologies which are already leaking.
The problem is that there are currently more than a hundred thousand people living in Rafah and the surrounding area. There are nearly 1.4 million Palestinians, including more than a million displaced people from other areas of the Gaza Strip, who would suffer from the attack by the Israeli army and cannot return to their homes destroyed by the Israeli invasion.
Israeli violence is feared in Rafah, which has devastated Gaza
Although many of the displaced people decided to leave Rafah and return to northern Gaza, there is no health care or shelter and little food or water. Not far from Rafah Jan Yunisthe other major southern Gaza city recently attacked, follows the hunt for Hamas guerrillas by the Israeli army, which respects hospitals and certainly not refugee camps.
Inside Naser Hospital by Khan Younis, the situation after the occupation by Israeli soldiers and the forced transfer of the patients treated there is untenable. The World Health Organization (WHO) has denounced this attack and the deadly threat it poses to patients.
He Naser Hospital, the largest in the southern Gaza Strip, was already beyond capacity. This week's attack by Israel Defense Forces has caused irreparable damage to many of its care units and further limited emergency services for those seriously injured in the war.
The fence, which is being built on Egyptian territory next to the border with Gaza, is the latest security measure taken by Egypt following the outbreak of war in that Palestinian territory. The border itself is secured by new fence systems, armored units and companies of Egyptian soldiers that they have allowed only the limited humanitarian aid that Israel allows into the Gaza Strip, as well as the evacuation of some very seriously injured people and a small number of foreign citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip following the invasion.
The Israeli trap for Palestinian refugees is closed
As he speeds up his preparations the Rafah attackIsrael faces the complication posed by the hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians it has driven out of the north and to whom it has directly told that Rafah would not be attacked. A ploy to force them to advance towards the bottleneck, the border with Egypt, and through this move to persuade them to leave the Gaza Strip.
This is one of the goals of Benjamin Netanyahu's far-right government: achieve the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gazaor at least as many as possible in order to transform this area into an Israeli military occupation zone and ultimately into a new settlement area for Jewish settlers.
The argument is that the Hamas battalions, which escaped the debacle of Gaza City in the north and Khan Yunis in the south, sought refuge in Rafah. And Prime Minister Netanyahu has vowed that he will not let alive any of the militants of this Islamist organization that was in control of Gaza until the Israeli invasion.
A ceasefire, the only way out of the impending catastrophe
Now Israel faces a dangerous dilemma in its scorched earth strategy in Gaza: stop the announced ground attack on Rafah and bet on it Ceasefire negotiated in Cairo with Qatar, Egypt and the United States as mediatorsOr you can continue the attack and cause an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
All this amid growing international criticism, even among his American allies and among his European friends, who are completely opposed to a military offensive in Rafah that would result in a massacre of civilians and a war crime. capable of shaping the Middle East region for decades.
The French President said it this Friday without any palliatives: Emmanuel Macron. An Israeli offensive in Rafah “can only lead to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” and would represent “a turning point” in this conflict.
Israel is radically opposed to the formation of a Palestinian state and the current crisis has doomed any agreement between Tel Aviv and Israel on this matter Palestinian Authority who rules the other Palestinian territory, the West Bank.
Placing a majority of Gazans in refugee camps in Egypt would put the finishing touches to this possibility of statehood for the Palestinians and pave the way for Israel's annexation of the Gaza Strip a time of unprecedented instability in the area in recent decades.
Cascade of international condemnation of Israeli plans
In a joint statement in Rabat, the presidents of the parliaments of the countries integrated into the EU said Union for the Mediterranean They also condemned that day the possibility of an Israeli attack on Rafah, called for a ceasefire and warned of Israel's plans to bring about “the forced relocation of Palestinians.”
This was added to this sentence Arab Leaguewhich not only called on Israel to halt its plans to attack Rafah, but also called on the UN Security Council to pass a binding resolution to “stop Israeli aggression” in Gaza.
Although Egypt is de facto preparing to receive a wave of refugees with the construction of this walled fence, where thousands of tents arrive, the government of Cairo has warned Israel of the catastrophic consequences that the attack on Rafah and the Palestinian flight towards the Egyptian border could have.
Tensions between Israel and Egypt are increasing
The government in Cairo has even threatened to do so Break the 1978 Camp David Accordswhich led to fragile stability in relations between Israel and Egypt after the wars between both countries and other Arab states.
Such a possibility would bring Israel and Egypt to the brink of a new military confrontation, a possibility that could only be stopped by diplomatic intervention by the United States, an ally of the two countries.
Washington rejects Israeli attack on Rafah and even American President Joe Biden has hinted at this. But such a rejection is due, it is said the White House, to the lack of a “credible plan” by Israel to safely evacuate Palestinian civilians from the line of fire. It is therefore not clear whether the US would support the massive exodus of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt as a lesser evil.
In any case, Netanyahu made it clear to Biden in a phone call on Thursday evening what the Israeli position was, and he immediately reiterated it to his war cabinet.
“Israel categorically rejects international mandates for a permanent agreement with the Palestinians. Israel will continue to oppose the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, as such recognition would constitute a huge reward for unprecedented terrorism after the October 7 massacre and would prevent any future peace agreement,” the Hebrew leader said.