Egypt Seems to Be Walling Off Massive Area Near Gaza Border

Amid the growing humanitarian crisis in Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, and threats of a ground invasion there by Israel, Egypt appears to be building a giant walled "buffer zone" on its side of its border with Gaza. Satellite images reveal the more than 2-mile-wide area that has been bulldozed since the beginning of February, CNN reports. The Wall Street Journal reports the walled enclosure in the Sinai Desert will be 8 square miles and will be able to hold more than 100,000 people. It is expected to encompass the entire border crossing complex at the Egypt-Rafah border, stretching from the end of the Gaza border to the Mediterranean Sea, and a human rights group says it will be surrounded by concrete walls at least 16 feet high.

The area is said to be a "contingency plan" for Egypt, which has made clear it does not want Gaza refugees flooding across the border, and the fact that it's being constructed, per the Journal, "signals that Egyptian officials see a rising danger" of exactly that happening. "Even if the Israelis push a million and a half people to spill over the border, Egypt can throw the ball back into Israel's lap by simply limiting the movement of Palestinians further in," an Egyptian security analyst says. Almost 1.5 million Palestinians are crowded into the tent city at Rafah with little food and water, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains determined to launch a ground offensive there despite international opposition. He says civilians will be evacuated first, but no evacuation plan has been outlined. (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)