Preparations reportedly underway for mass expulsion from Gaza into Egyptian Sinai 

Over four months of ruthless Israeli attacks on Gaza have left the besieged enclave, which is home to over 2 million people, decimated. More than half of its population has been crammed into Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah after Israel deemed the area a “safe zone.”

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However, Israel has since announced plans to conduct a ground invasion of the city, which will put hundreds of thousands of families’ lives at risk. 

“We will fight until complete victory and this includes a powerful action also in Rafah after we allow the civilian population to leave the battle zones,” the Israeli prime minister said on X.

In light of the looming operation, Egypt is allegedly preparing for the Rafah’s population to be expelled. 

The rights group Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFUR) has reported that construction is currently underway to create a security zone with Gaza, which would act as a buffer area that could receive Palestinian refugees if they are forced out of the besieged enclave.

Citing local contractors, SFUR says the aim is to create an area in the Sinai peninsula that is surrounded by seven-meter-high walls in an area that will be paved over the destroyed homes of indigenous groups in the area.

The report, which Mondowiess has not independently verified, states that the construction will not take more than ten days. 

Since October, Israel has proposed various plans to push Gaza’s Palestinian residents into Egypt, which Cairo has rejected.

“It [Rafah] sits right at the border with Egypt. It’s seen by the Egyptians as a major breach of their national security, and ultimately it brings the question of where will these 1.3 to 1.4 million people go?” Middle East specialist Hafsa Halawa told Al Jazeera.

“The rest of Gaza is effectively uninhabitable, there are no services, we’ve heard the talk of famine for months now, and now we’re at a stage where this is really the Israeli government enacting what they promised on the first week after the attacks of October 7, which is to flatten the Strip.”