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Egypt begins demolishing 1,220 houses in Rafah

January 9, 2015 at 12:12 pm

Local authorities in Sinai began the second phase of a plan to displace thousands of Egyptian families whose houses are located within 500 meters of the border with Gaza, in preparation for the establishment of a buffer zone.

The governor of the North Sinai governorate Major General Abdel Fattah Hrahoor said: “The Egyptian government decided to remove the town of Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip completely.”

$210

Is being paid by the authorities to displaced families in Sinai to cover the cost of temporary accommodation

In a press statement, he said: “In order to establish a buffer zone on the border with the Gaza Strip, it is necessary to completely remove the entire Egyptian city of Rafah.”

“A residential area for the families that were displaced from the town of Rafah will be established,” he explained.

The Egyptian government has decided to compensate each of those families with 1,500 Egyptian pounds ($210) to cover the expenses of temporarily renting a home until the payment of the full financial compensation.

Egyptian sources explained that the second phase of the plan to establish a buffer zone along the Gaza border includes the evacuation and demolition of 1,220 houses in the city of Rafah and displacing approximately 2,044 families, following the evacuation of 837 homes inhabited by 1,156 families in the first phase, which ended last month.

A state of extreme anger is prevailing among residents of Rafah because of what was described by activists as “the second Nakba of Sinai”, as the first Nakba marked their migration following the Israeli occupation of Sinai in 1967.