Egyptian army to complete buffer zone with Gaza

Egyptian forces have been continuous in their work to expand the military buffer zone in Sinai along with the 15 kilometre border with the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Qudsnet reported yesterday.

A Qudsnet reporter said that the Egyptian army has already levelled the houses in Al-Hilwan, Salahuddin, Barahmeh, Al-Jabour and Al-Salam neighbourhoods in Egyptian Rafah to the ground.

“The Egyptian army has almost completed work in the one kilometre military buffer zone along the Egyptian-Gaza borders,” the Qudsnet reporter said, noting that the army continues to destroy hundreds of houses in several places.

The first stage of the military buffer zone, 500-meter-deep inside Sinai, was completed and a sum of $242 million was paid as compensation to 616 citizens who were displaced.

Egyptian media reported that the military buffer zone with the Gaza Strip is meant to stop Palestinians digging tunnels to smuggle food and other necessary items from Egypt because of the eight-year Israeli siege on the Strip.