KABUL: (Middle East Press) Over 1,020 houses in Rafah, near the border with southern Gaza Strip have been destroyed by the Egyptian armed forces to create a buffer zone with the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Egyptian security officials said on Tuesday that 200 more homes would be ruined in the area to extend the buffer zone as many as 500 meters from the border.
This is the second phase of a destruction plan announced by Cairo following an attack by unidentified gunmen on a checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula that killed dozens of soldiers last October.
After the attacks, Egyptian authorities also sealed the Rafah border crossing, which is Gaza’s only land terminal that bypasses Israel.
Some 800 homes and buildings were ruined in the first phase of the buffer zone project, which Cairo claims will prevent Gazans from entering Egypt.
On November 27, 2014, Amnesty International condemned Egypt over razing to the ground hundreds of homes in Rafah, calling on Egyptian authorities to put an end to the “unlawful evictions” of residents to create the buffer zone.
