Egypt Builds Border Wall in Gaza to Contain Palestinians

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt is building a large concrete wall on its border with the Gaza Strip to contain a potential influx of Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombings.

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Egyptian authorities are enclosing a vast area of the Sinai Desert spanning over 20 square kilometers with large concrete walls near the Gaza border, the newspaper asserts, citing Egyptian officials and security analysts as sources.

It is described as a massive new complex to bolster the country's security in the event that "a large number of Gaza residents manage to enter" if an Israeli offensive erupts in the southern part of the Strip, in the border city of Rafah.

Egypt has already been trying to bolster security along the border in recent months to keep Palestinians away, deploying soldiers and armored vehicles and reinforcing fences.

The Wall Street Journal published satellite photographs taken by the company Planet Labs PBC showing earth movements in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula, next to Gaza, within an area designated as a walled enclosure for the possible location of a Palestinian refugee camp.

Over 100,000 people could be housed in the camp, which is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlement. A large number of tents have been delivered to the site.

The construction of this wall comes as Israel continues its military offensive along the Gaza Strip, and fears increase that the country will launch an attack on Rafah.

Thousands of Palestinians living in Gaza have moved to Rafah to protect themselves from Israeli attacks that began in the north of that territory but have spread throughout the Strip.