BICOM

Egyptian authorities yesterday announced that they have completed a kilometre-deep buffer zone the length of the Egypt-Gaza border in order to protect against tunnels enabling the smuggling of arms and weapons, fuelling Islamist violence in the Sinai Peninsula.

The buffer zone expands on an existing 500-metre deep area Egypt had already established spanning a nine-mile stretch along the Gaza border. It is estimated that around 2,000 homes have been destroyed to make way for the buffer zone, which Egypt hopes will halt Hamas’s ability to support terrorist groups in Sinai.

Egypt’s President al-Sisi declared a state of emergency in parts of Sinai in October, after saying that “foreign forces” were responsible for a huge double terror attack in northern Sinai, which killed 33 Egyptian soldiers. He also ordered the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which has remained almost entirely shut ever since. Yesterday, al-Sisi said that Egypt had destroyed around 80 per cent of the smuggling tunnels and again alluded to Hamas’s influence, blaming “foreign agents” for the violence.

Since ousting the Muslim Brotherhood from power in Egypt in 2013, al-Sisi’s regime has been the main target of Sinai terror groups, especially Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has also targeted Israel on occasion, carrying out occasional cross-border raids and firing a handful of rockets at the southernmost Israeli city, Eilat.

Also yesterday, Maj Gen Sami Turgeman, the outgoing head of Israel’s southern command said that there is no current alternative to Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. Speaking to local authority officials, he said that “the only replacement for Hamas is the IDF and authoritarian chaos,” adding, “the Palestinian Authority cannot rule [in Gaza] and this should be taken as an indisputable statement.”

Turgeman added that future Gaza conflict appeared inevitable, saying “periods of quiet must be created as much as possible with the knowledge that once in a while there will be a confrontation, and we shouldn’t be surprised that once every few years it will happen.”