CAIRO, Feb 16, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Egypt is building a walled camp in the

Sinai Peninsula to receive Palestinians displaced from the besieged and
bombarded Gaza Strip, according to a US media report on Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal article, citing Egyptian officials and security
analysts, comes after a rights group reported Egypt was preparing "a high-
security gated and isolated area" to receive Palestinian refugees.

The Journal said Egyptian authorities are constructing an "eight-square-mile
walled enclosure" on the Egyptian side of the border with Gaza.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas militants began in early October,
Cairo has warned against the "forced displacement" of Palestinians into the
Sinai desert.

But with 1.5 million displaced Palestinians pushed up against its border and
no results from ceasefire talks, Egypt is establishing the compound as part
of "contingency plans" that could accommodate "more than 100,000 people", the
Journal said.

Fears of mass displacement have mounted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's insistence that troops must push into Rafah, Gaza's southernmost
point, to achieve "complete victory" over Hamas.

Palestinian leaders, the United Nations, Arab neighbours and Israeli allies
including the United States have all warned about the impact on civilians of
a Rafah offensive.

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian NGO, released a report
this week that it said showed construction of the compound to receive
Palestinian refugees "in the case of a mass exodus".

AFP reviewed satellite pictures taken on Thursday of the area in northern
Sinai, showing machinery building a wall along the Egypt-Gaza border. The
area is highly secure and closed to journalists.

A comparison of satellite photos taken on February 10 and February 15 shows
land having been graded.

- 'Seven-metre walls' -

North Sinai governor Mohamed Shousha has denied Egypt is preparing "an
isolated area in Sinai" to receive refugees.

The construction work was to assess houses destroyed during upheaval in
recent years to "properly compensate" owners, he said Thursday.

The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights said two contractors told it
construction firms had been tasked with building the gated area, "surrounded
by seven-metre-high walls".

The site lies on the "rubble" of Egyptian homes "demolished" during the
state's war against Islamist insurgents in northern Sinai over the past
decade, it said.

Sources in Sinai told AFP the area was being prepared in case of a breach of
the Gaza border, which Egypt has fortified with additional walls and buffer
areas since the war began.

"The area will be readied with tents" and humanitarian assistance would be
delivered inside, said one source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Egypt and Qatar are seeking a ceasefire before Israel proceeds with a full-
scale ground incursion in Rafah, which it has already pounded with air
strikes.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has repeatedly spoken out against the
forced displacement of Gazans and warned against jeopardising the peace
treaty Cairo signed with Israel in 1979.

Others have warned against a "second Nakba", when more than 760,000
Palestinians were displaced or driven from their lands in the creation of
Israel in 1948 and never allowed to return.

Israel denies it is attempting to push Palestinians into Sinai, but ministers
and officials have publicly supported the "voluntary resettlement" of
Palestinians from Gaza.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that
resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to
an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

At least 28,775 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in
Israel's retaliatory military offensive, according to the Gaza health
ministry.