In Photos: North Sinai’s Rafah homes demolished

Over 1,100 Egyptian families are being displaced by the army’s decision to evacuate and demolish more than 800 houses in the Sinai Peninsula’s Rafah border area, near Gaza and Israel, an Egyptian government official said.

The army is creating a 500 metre buffer zone along the Gaza border in an effort to crackdown on the flow of weapons and militant activities that have increasingly threatened Egypt’s security forces over the last year.

Every family is being offered 300 Egyptians pounds ($41) as compensation to pay for three months’ rent, Abdel Fattah Harhour, North Sinai’s governor told Middle East Eye. But a presidential council - formed by Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to meet with tribal elders in Rafah - said on Monday that North Sinai’s residents are requesting higher compensations. 

However, the move was defended by a key government-appointed Muslim cleric. “The danger, which threatens the homeland, and especially these people, is genuine,” Shawqi Allam, said in a statement about the demolitions issued on Monday.

The move to flatten houses, came a few days after 31 Egyptian security personnel were killed in two attacks in North Sinai on 24 October, in the worst anti-state violence in over a year. In the first attack, 28 soldiers were killed and another 30 injured when a car bomb exploded at a security checkpoint in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwayed. A few hours later, three security personnel were killed when militants opened fire at a checkpoint near the town of Arish.

In a review of statements and press releases by Egyptian security forces, Aswat Masriya, a news website funded by Reuters news agency, said that the number of security personnel and civilians killed in armed attacks by militants in North Sinai had surged in the past two months.

Between 25 August and 24 October, there were 22 militant attacks in Sinai, targeting security personnel and civilians. This compares with nine attacks between 25 June and 24 August, Aswat Masriya reported.

The army insists that it is demolishing homes to get rid of tunnels that have been built underneath, or near people’s homes, to smuggle and trade goods with Hamas-run Gaza. Egypt has in the past accused Hamas of aiding militant groups in Sinai, an allegation denied by Hamas which is considered the Gaza-based offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and has been declared a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian state.

Many of Egypt’s Rafah residents have familial connections with those on the Palestinian side of the border. The official Rafah crossing has been closed indefinitely since the 24 October attack.