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BBC Verify found that Egypt built a wall more than 3 kilometers long last week and continued to clear a large area along its border with Gaza.
It comes after Israel warned that it was preparing a ground attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
The Palestinian city has seen a massive increase in population in recent months.
Egyptian officials say “no provisions are being made” for displaced Palestinians. It is intended to become a “logistics hub” for field support.
But a worker at a UK charity involved in humanitarian efforts in Gaza told the BBC: “I have never seen land being cleared on such a large scale.” For a logistics center with these characteristics and his organization was not aware of any such plan.
What do the latest images show?
In recent satellite images you can see that more than 16 square kilometers have been cleared across the border with Gaza.
The area began to clear up in early February, but it has increased dramatically in the past week.
now it feels like Parts of the wall are being built around this area.
On February 14, about 0.8 kilometers of wall was visible on satellite images, but more recent images show that more than 4 kilometers of wall has already been erected.
It appears that the wall is being built at three places simultaneously. In the image below you can see construction in the south-west corner of the cleared area.
Near the construction materials you can see something like cranes and other vehicles.
In the southeast corner, a gathering of trucks can be seen on the main road leading from northern Egypt to Gaza.
Some of these trucks are parked away from the main road and inside the newly cleared area.
What is the area for?
Following reports that the area intended to host Palestinian refugees, Egypt publicly denied that it was making such preparations.
Since the beginning of the Gaza war following a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Egypt has repeatedly said it will not open its borders to refugees.
Cairo took this stance partly because it does not want to be seen as complicit in the mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, but also because of economic and security concerns.
Israel, for its part, indicated That “it has no intention of taking Palestinian citizens to Egypt.”
Authorities in Egypt’s North Sinai province issued a statement saying that “the armed forces are setting up a logistics area to transport aid to Gaza and relieve congestion on roads near the border.”
image Source, North Sinai Province
Authorities in Egypt’s North Sinai province released photos of the construction work.
The local governor said the area was being prepared to house “truck waiting areas, secure warehouses, administrative offices and housing for drivers.”
However, the BBC spoke to a humanitarian expert who is part of the group coordinating aid efforts in Gaza, and he Indicated that he had not heard of any such plan.
“If there was a plan to suddenly increase capacity by creating some kind of hub, I think the Egyptian authorities would have shared it (with aid agencies),” he said.
The aid worker did not want to be identified because it could complicate relations between the humanitarian organization she works for and Egyptian authorities.
“Storage capacity in Egypt is something that is discussed in almost every meeting. Since it has not been shared, my assumption is that it is not planned,” he said.
We showed recent satellite images to several security experts to find out what they think about its possible purpose.
Andreas Craig, senior lecturer in security studies at King’s College London, said: “You don’t need to free up so much land to accommodate waiting trucks. To me, it looks like Egypt is preparing for the worst. Is.”
“If you put it into perspective how big this area is, 16 square kilometers of trucks, that’s thousands and thousands of trucks. There has never been a situation where there are thousands of trucks waiting at the border.”
Graphics by Filippa Silverio
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